Friday 28 April 2017

清炖狮子头 Meatball in Chinese Cabbage Soup

I saw this meatball in napa/chinese cabbage soup from a Taiwanese healthcare show “别让身体不开心”。The soup was prepared using simple ingredients without any additive like MSG. The cooking method is also very simple - just cook with the cabbage leaves placed at the bottom of a pot, add water, then rest the meatballs on top 😉

The clear Chinese cabbage soup received all its flavour and oil from the juice of the meatballs that rest above the vegetables​. I added some cut carrot for a more colourful presentation 😊

I omitted the water chestnuts and ginger from the original recipe and replaced by chopped onion 😬

28 April 2017
In my second attempt, I omitted shiitake mushrooms, and added water chestnuts, potato starch, and seasoning powder. Both the taste and texture of the meatballs was much better than the previous made. Perhaps it also attributed to I mixed the meat paste by hand instead of using a pair of chopsticks 😁


Ingredients

280g minced pork
3~4 de-shelled prawns, large
2 shiitake mushrooms, soaked & cut
1/4 tsp fried shallot crisp
1 tbsp white scallions
1 tbsp chopped onion
1 tbsp water chestnuts, finely cut
2 tbsp rice wine
Slightly less than 1/4 tsp salt
Pepper powder
1 tsp potato starch
1/4 tsp seasoning powder, "Knorr" brand Hao Chi *
1/4 tsp sesame oil

* Knorr Hao Chi 好吃 is a seasoning powder made of onion and garlic flavours.

Directions

1. Wash and soak shiitake mushrooms till softened. Squeeze dry the mushrooms, and cut into small bits.
Add a little olive oil and fried shallot crisp to a non-stick frying pan. When you smell the nice aroma, pour in the shiitake mushrooms, and stir fry at low heat till fragrant.
Allow the mushroom bits to cool down before use. Set aside.

2. Cut de-shelled prawns into small chunks, and marinate with a little salt, sugar and pepper powder. Cover and set aside.

Cut water chestnuts into fine bits.



3. Add minced pork, rice wine, salt and pepper powder in a mixing bowl.


Stir in one direction till the meat form into a lump, or becomes sticky. You'll see "thread" developed in the stiçky meat paste.
It is advisable to use your hand ✋ to mix instead of using a pair of chopsticks 🤓




Next, add in the potato starch and seasoning powder. Mix well.



4. Add white scallions, chopped onion,  water chestnuts and fried shiitake mushroom bits from (1) into the meat paste.



Next, mix in the prawns from (2), and sesame oil.




5. For a better texture and taste, the meat paste needs​ to be slammed for about 20 times. As the process is quite messy, I did it in the washing basin.





The meat paste became smoother and more cohesive at the end of the process.


Seal with a cling wrap and refrigerate for about 15 to 30 minutes.


Alternatively, transfer the meat paste to a Ziploc freezer bag. Slam the bag with the content onto the worktop for about 20 times.  Sealing the content in a Ziploc bag helps to cut off the splashing and flying-off parts during slamming 😀



At the end
I keep the bag of meat paste in the fridge while preparing the vegetable soup.

Soup

Ingredients

180~200g baby napa/chinese cabbage
1 tbsp carrot, cut
1/4 ~1/2 tsp salt
Pepper powder
350~400ml water


Directions

1. Wash the baby napa/Chinese cabbage and cut each leaf into two portion​s.
Cut the carrot into rings.

2. Lay the harder part of the leaves at the bottom of an 18 cm pot.


3. Scatter cut carrots on top of the first layer, then followed by the greener portion of the leaves.



4. Pour about 350ml of water, add about 1/4 tsp of fine salt, and shake some pepper powder to the vegetables​.
Need not add too much water as the veggies will release more water after cooking.


Cover the pot and bring to a boil


5. When the content starts to boil, shape the meat paste into ball shape, and rest on top of the veggies.




Cover the pot with a lid, and let the content simmer at low heat for about 15 minutes.

Turn off the heat and let the ingredients simmer further to get a nice sweet aroma.


6. Garnish with some cut green scallions and coriander leaves before serving. Enjoy  😋♥


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I use the similar method to prepare my winter melon soup 😁








Monday 24 April 2017

Purple Sweet Potato Butter Cake 紫薯牛油蛋糕


I baked this purple sweet potato butter cake as I have some steamed purple sweet potato leftover after baking my Purple sweet potato bread. The purple sweet potato, which only present in small quantity in this cake recipe, was not strong enough to affect the aroma of the butter cake. It just helped to make some nice contours in the moist and velvety cake :)



Pan size: One 26Lx10Wx7H cm loaf pan


Ingredients

Ingredients in room temperature

110g unsalted butter, softened 无盐牛油,软化
105g fine sugar 细糖

3 eggs 鸡蛋

110g top/cake flour 低筋面粉
15g milk powder 牛奶粉
1/2 tsp baking powder 泡打粉

20ml lemon juice 柠檬汁
15g honey 蜂蜜
1/2 tsp lemon zest 柠檬皮削
1/2 tsp vanilla essence 香草精

40~50g steamed purple sweet potato paste 

Directions

1. Coat the loaf pan with butter, followed by dusting some top flour over it. Set aside.


2. Mash the steamed sweet potato into paste. Cover and set aside.


3. Collect 20ml of lemon juice, and 1/2 tsp of lemon zest from a lemon. 

Pour lemon juice, honey, lemon zest, and vanilla essence, in a small bowl.  Set aside.


4. Cream softened butter and fine sugar, till pale and fluffy using a hand whisk. Set aside.



5. Beat eggs till frothy.


Add beaten egg into the butter cream from (4) gradually.  Start adding the next batch of beaten egg after the previous batch has been well incorporated with the butter cream.



6. Mix top/cake flour, milk powder and baking powder in a separate mixing bowl before sifting into the butter cream mixture.



7. Blend in the lemon-honey mixture from (3).

Give the batter a more thorough mix using a spatula.



8. Take about 1/4 of the batter and mix with the purple sweet potato paste from (2).



9. Pour the two batters into the prepared loaf pan in alternating sequence - adding new scoop of batter on top of the previous one to create the line pattern​.



10. Bake at middle rack of a preheated oven set at 150° Celsius for 40 minutes. Increase the oven temperature to 170° Celsius for additional 5 minutes to give a nicer brown top.

 End of baking


Let the cake cool down in the loaf pan for about 10 to 15 minutes over a wire rack before inverting it out to cool further.




11. Cut the cake after it has cooled down. Enjoy 😋🍰