Low fat chicken potato casserole



This recipe uses rice cooker to cook the potato and carrot before adding to the casserole. It reduces the chance of potato becoming marshy due to stirring and prolong cooking.

Ingredients:
1/4 onion, julienne
2 potatoes, cut into quarters
1 carrot, cut into chunks
3 skinless chicken thighs

Sauce:
1 tbsp light soya sauce
2 tsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp sugar (I like sweet sweet)
1/2 tsp dark soya sauce
About 100ml water

Directions:
1. Soak potato and carrot in salt water for about 10 minutes, drained.

2. Place potato, carrot and onion in a heat resistant bowl. Add 100ml of water into the rice cooker, then place the bowl in it and cook using the normal rice cooking mode. When the potato and carrot are cooked, set aside.

3. Wash and marinate the chicken thighs with 1 tsp light soya sauce and dash of black pepper.

4. In a non-stick pot, heat up a 1/2 tbsp of olive oil in medium low heat. Place the chicken thighs in and cook till the meat starts to turn white. Add in the sauce and water. When it starts to boil, pour in the cooked vegetables. When it starts to boil again, lower the heat and let it simmer till the meat soften. Stir in a tsp of starch mixed with 1 tbsp water towards the end of cooking, if you like a thicker gravy.
Serve hot with rice :)

Happycall Japanese An-pan

Yield: 4x7cm buns

Ingredients:
100g bread flour
2 tsp raw sugar
1 tsp dry yeast
65g milk, warm
10g butter, soften
60g red bean paste

Direction:
1. Pour flour, raw sugar and yeast into a clean mixing bowl. Mix well.

Pour flour, sugar and yeast in a
mixing bowl.

2. Dig a well in the middle of the flour mixture, and pour in the warm milk. Stir to mix.

Pour warm milk to the middle
of the flour mixture.

3. When all the milk has combined with the flour, add in the softened butter. Continue to mix until all the butter has incorporated with the flour. Shape the dough into a ball and let it rest for 5 minutes.

4. When 5 minutes is up, knead the dough in the bowl for about 5 to 8 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into a ball and sprinkle some water on the dough surface. Place in a big bowl and cover it. Let it proof in a warm environment for about 25 to 30 minutes, or till the dough size double.

Mix the flour, sugar and yeast up
using hand

Add in the butter when the milk
has been absorbed.

Knead for about 5 to 8 minutes
in the mixing bowl,.

Proofing in the mixing bowl.

After the proofing, the size double.

5. Press down the dough to release the trapped air. Roll the dough into a ball and cut into 4 portions.

Divide the dough into 4 portions

6. Take a portion of the divided dough and roll into a ball. Press down and roll the dough into about 10 cm in diameter. Allow the dough center to be thicker than the edge.

Roll the dough with the centre thicker
than the edge

7. Flip the dough over, so that the smoother side will be facing out when you wrap with red bean paste.
Squeeze a spoonful of red bean paste in the middle. Wrap up the dough and pinch to seal the opening.

Flip the dough after rolling out, with
the smoother side facing down.

Squeeze out the red bean paste
from the packet.

Add a spoonful of red bean paste
in the middle

Wrap up the dough.

Pinch the opening to seal.

8. Face the opening down and place on a parchment paper coated with butter in the HCP. When you finish the 4 breads, close the lid and start baking in medium low heat for about 8 to 10 minutes.  Then flip the bread over to heat the other side for another 5 minutes.  When the bread is cooked, the side of the bread will be hard and crispy.  And you can smell the nice aroma of the bread.

Bake in the HCP for 8 minutes on one
side, and the other side
for 5 minutes.

Baking is done!

9. Cool the bread down over a wire rack.
Serve with tea :)

Mexican coffee buns with soya filling

 

Soya filling
Ingredients:
100g soya bean pulp or okra
10g butter
30g raw sugar

Heat all the ingredients in a non-stick pot till it forms a soft dry paste.



Stir and heat till the paste is dry

 

The soya bean paste

Divide the bean paste into 8 portions and shape into balls. Set aside.

Dough ingredients:

250g bread flour
35g raw sugar
3g fine salt
1 tsp dry yeast
135g low fat milk, warm
30g butter, softened
1/2 egg

Directions:

1. Place bread flour in a clean mixing bowl. Dig a well in the middle of the flour, pour in sugar and yeast. Add a few teaspoons of warm milk to the yeast to activate it. Let it stand for about 2 minutes.


Pour the yeast and some sugar
into the well.

Adding warm milk to the yeast and
sugar to activate the yeast.

2. Pour in the remaining warm milk and beaten egg, mix well. Start kneading the dough by using an electric hand mixer fits with dough hooks till smooth. This takes about 5 minutes.







Pour in the remaining milk and
beaten egg

Mix all the ingredients together
into a lump


3. Add in the softened butter, continue to knead till the dough become smooth and elastic. This may take about 5 to 10 minutes.


Kneading completes when the dough
is elastic and smooth.

4. Shape the dough into a ball and place in a container with a cover. Let it proofs in warm temperature for about 1 hour.


Cover the dough and let it
proof for 1 hour

5 To test whether the proofing is done, coat your index finger with flour and insert into the middle of the dough. If the hole does not close up, then the proofing is done. Otherwise, continue to proof for another 10 minutes and test again.


At the end of proofing, test with
your finger by poking a hole

6. Punch down the dough to release the air. Fold in the sides and roll it up into a ball. Divide the dough into 8 portions by using a dough cutter. Roll them into balls and rest for 10 minutes.





Press down the dough to release
the trapped air

Divide the dough into 8 portions

Shape the cut doughs into balls.


7. Use your palm to flatten a dough ball, flip it over and place a salted soy bean paste in it. Wrap the dough up and pinch the opening to seal tightly. Place the dough with the sealed end down on a tray. Leaving about 5 cm gap in between doughs. Place the tray in the oven set at 35 degree Celsius to proof for about 40 minutes.



Flatten the dough

Place a soya bean paste onto
the middle of the flatten dough

Pinched the opening to seal
tight

Meanwhile, prepare the coffee icing cream:


Coffee crust ingredients:
100g butter, softened
80g icing sugar
1 1/2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tbsp instant coffee powder
1 tbsp hot water, to mix with coffee powder
100g self-raising flour

Direction:
1. Place softened butter in a mixing bowl. Whip the butter by using an electric hand mixer for about 2 minutes. Add in the icing sugar and continue to whip till well mix.


Mixing icing sugar to the butter

2. Pour in the beaten egg and continue to whip.


Adding beaten egg to the butter
cream

3. When the egg is well incorporated with the butter, pour in the coffee paste (premix the coffee powder with water). Mix well.

Dissolve the instant coffee
powder in hot water



Adding coffee paste to the
butter cream



Whip the coffee cream by
using a single whisk of the
mixer

4. Finally, add in the flour in a few batches. Mix well.



Mixing the flour to the coffee
cream in batches.

Stop whipping when sharp peaks
formed

The coffee cream after finish
whipping.

5. When done, scoop the coffee icing cream into a pipping bag fix with 5mm nozzle.


Scoop the coffee cream ino a pipping
bag

6. Keep the coffee icing cream in the fridge till ready to use.


To prevent the cream from oozing
out from the nozzle, clip a fastener
to the bag just before the nozzle

Icing & baking

1.When the dough proofing is done, take them out of the oven. Pipe coffee icing cream to cover the top of the bread dough.


Align the finished bread doughs
at least 5 cm apart.

2. Bake the bread in a preheated oven for about 15 to 20 minutes at 200 degree Celsius.


Almost finish baking.

Cool the bun before serving :)





Salted vegetable stew 焖酸咸菜

Ingredients:
1 stem salted vegetable
100g pork belly or any pork,  shredded
2~3 cloves of garlic, minced
1~2 slices of ginger, minced
1 shiitake mushroom, soaked and sliced
1 tbsp sugar, or adjust the amount according to your taste
200ml water
1 tsp potatos/corn starch mix with 10ml water

Marinating ingredients:
1 tsp light soya sauce
1 tsp sugar
dash of black pepper

Direction:
1. Cut the salted vegetables into small pieces or stripes. Soak in water for about 1 to 2 hours to reduce the saltiness.  Rinse with fresh water a few times.

2. Wash and cut the pork. Marinate for about 10 minutes.

3. Heat about 1 tbsp of oil in HCP, pour in the minced ginger and garlic. When you start to smell the fragrance of the ginger and garlic, add in the pork to stir fry.

4. When the pork starts to turn white, pour in the drained salted veggie with mushroom, continue to stir-fry in medium high heat.  When you start to smell the nice fragrance of the salted veggie, pour in about 100~200 ml of water and let it simmer.  Close the lid.

5. When the ingredients start to boil, add in sugar and cut chilli,  turn down the heat.  Allow the dish to simmer to the softness you prefer. Open the lid to check the water level, and top up the water during the cooking process.

6. At the end of cooking, add in the starch water to thicken the gravy.
Serve with warm white rice or porridge.

Happy cooking:)

Low fat soya milk cake



Yield: 1x14cm round cake

Ingredients:
60g unsweetened soya milk
10g oatmeal
3g olive oil
5g pandan leaf, cut into small stripes
(Can be replaced by 1 tsp vanilla essence)
2 eggs
70g raw sugar
70g top flour

Direction:
1. Blend soya milk, oatmeal, olive oil and pandan leaf in food processor or blender. Set aside in a rice cooker to keep warm.

2. Heat up a small amount of water in a pot. This is the water bath that is used to warm the egg mixture while bearing it. Do not boil the water, once you see light steam you can stop heating).

3. In a clean heat resistant mixing bowl, add the eggs and raw sugar in. Place the bowl over a water bath. Whisk the egg mixture at high speed for about 2 minutes or till the mixture turns thick. Reduce the electric hand mixer speed to low and continue to whisk for another 5 minutes or till soft peaks formed.

4. Add the blended soya mixture into the egg batter. Blend well using the electric hand mixer.

5. Remove the mixing bowl from the pot, sieve in the top flour in 3 batches Mix well using the whisk removed from the electric hand mixer.
Finally, use a spatula to scrap the side and bottom of the mixing bowl to ensure no flour is left unmixed.

6. Preheat the oven to 170 degree Celsius.

7. Pour the cake batter into a 14cm cake tin lined with parchment paper.
Give the tin a few light taps to get rid of trapped air parcels in the batter. Smooth the cake surface using the spatula.

8. Bake the cake in an oven at 170 degree Celsius for 25 minutes. Then turn off the upper heating coil and continue to heat using lower heating coil for another 10 minutes, or till a stick inserted draws out dry.

9. Remove the cake from the oven and cake tin. Cool on a wire rack. Cut and serve when the cake cools down :)