Vegetable Fritters

One of the most delicious snacks that I have ever made is the Vegetable Fritters. It is savoury and can either be eaten on its own or with chili sauce, tomato sauce or mayonnaise. It is easy to make. The vegetables need not be limited to the types mentioned below. You may include or mix them other vegetables that you like. It can be pan-fried or deep-fried. You can make them soft or crunchy. This snack can be eaten during mid-morning hours, during afternoon tea or even during supper time.

Ingredients:

• 120 g cabbagee
• 100 g carrots
• 25 g green onions
• 135 g onions
• 75 g rice flour
• 50 g all purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Cooking oil

Method:

• Wash and julienne the cabbage.

• Wash and grate the carrot into thin strips.

• Wash and cut the green onions into 0.5 cm length.

• Peel, wash and cut the onions lengthwise.

• Add all the vegetables to a big mixing bowl.

• Add the rice flour and all-purpose flour to the bowl.

• Add eggs to the bowl.

• Add salt, black pepper powder and baking powder to the bowl.

• Mix all the ingredients till they are well-combined.

• (Decide whether it is to be pan-fried or deep-fried. If you want crunchy fritters, then deep-fry them. The cooking oil must cover the batter. You can still obtain crunchy fritters if you were to pan-fry them; you have to spread the batter as thinly as possible.)

• I have decided to pan-fry them to have a crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside fritters. I may deep-fry them next time.

• Add oil to the pan. Let the oil heat up.

• Scoop a spoonful of batter onto the pan. Use a spoon to shape the batter into a round mass.

• Let the batter cooked till it is golden brown on the bottom.

• Flip it over to brown the other side.

• Remove the fritter onto a kitchen towel to soak up excess oil.

• Repeat till all the batter has been cooked.

• Serve the fritters while they are hot.

Cream Puffs

  

 A cream puff is also known as a profiterole (frozen after filled with cream) or chou à la crème. It is basically choux pastry filled with whipped cream, whipped cream with cream cheese, custard cream, pastry cream (vanilla or chocolate or any flavour) or any cream of your liking. The puffs may be decorated with powdered sugar as I had done or drizzled with chocolate sauce, etc. or it may be served plain.

Cream puffs are easy to make. Being light and airy, they are great for breakfast, tea time snacks or desserts. Usually I will not fill my puffs; I will keep them in air-tight containers in the refrigerator and pipe them when I want to eat them. However, you may fill them in advance, store them in air-tight containers and freeze them. The puffs will thaw in less than 15 minutes when you want to eat them.

Ingredients for the Dough:

• 220 g water
• 130 g butter
• A pinch of salt
• 160 g plain flour, sifted twice
• 5 - 6 eggs

Ingredients for the Whipped Cream

• 300 g whipping cream
• 100 g powdered sugar (can be reduced)

Method:

• Pour water, butter and salt into a saucepan and bring them to a boil.

• Pour the sifted flour immediately into the saucepan.

• Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture is well incorporated, forms into a smooth dough ball and does not stick to the saucepan.

• Remove the saucepan from the heat and let the dough cool down a bit.

• Transfer the dough into a mixing bowl.

• Set the mixer to medium speed.

• Add the eggs, one at a time, to the dough. After adding the 5th egg, test the dough to see if it can drop from the spoon to form a ball. If it cannot drop from the spoon, it means that the dough is too dry. Add the 6th egg, spoonful by spoonful, and mix again to incorporate it into the dough until it can drop from the spoon to form a ball.

• You may transfer the dough into a piping bag and pipe the dough onto a greased and slightly floured baking sheet. Leave a space between the dough balls to allow for expansion. When you have finished piping the dough, wet your finger and press the tip of the dough down.

• Or, you may use 2 spoons to drop the dough onto the baking sheet, again allowing space for expansion.

• Bake at a preheated oven at 230 degrees Centigrade for 25 minutes or until they turn golden brown.

• Remove the puffs from the oven immediately after baking.

• While waiting for the puffs to bake, measure the whipping cream and the powdered sugar into a cold metal bowl. (Due to our weather, it would be better to put this bowl into a bigger bowl filled with water and ice.)

• Beat the cream and sugar with a hand held beater until stiff peak.

• Pipe the whipped cream into the puffs which had cooled down.

• The cream puffs are ready to be served.

• [Note: This recipe makes about 25 relatively big puffs, the size of ping pong balls. If you wish to have more puffs, pipe lesser amounts onto the baking sheet.] 

Crispy Bean Sprout Fritters

Bean Sprout Fritters is a delicious savoury snack. It is a very versatile dish; you choose what you want to put into the fritters besides the main ingredient, bean sprout. You can make it very crispy or the soft kind. It can be eaten by itself or with chili sauce or tomato sauce.


Ingredients:

• 10 g bean sprout
• 3-inch carrot
• 1 medium size onion
• 1 stalk green onion
• 2-3 chili padi
• 120 g rice flour
• 60 g all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg (leave out for the crispy version)
• Salt, to taste
• Black pepper powder, to taste
• Water
• Cooking oil

Method:

• Wash the bean sprouts and rid them of the hulls (outer shells) and the roots (if they are too long). Drain the bean sprouts till they are dry.

• Julienne the carrot.

• Peel and cut the onion lengthwise.

• Wash and cut the green onion into 1 cm long.

• Wash and chop up the chili padi.

• Add rice flour, all-purpose flour and baking powder to a mixing bowl.

• Add salt and black pepper powder.

• Add water and stir till the mixture is of a smooth consistency, not too thick nor too watery.

• Add bean sprout, carrot, onion, green onion and chili padi to the flour mixture. Stir till they are mixed up evenly.

• Heat up a wok with cooking oil. (The amount of oil must cover the batter for a crispy fritter.)

• Spoon the batter into the wok. Do not stir the batter until the ingredients have set.

• Once the batter has turned golden brown, turn it to brown the other side.

• Dish out onto a kitchen towel to let the excess oil run off.

• Serve it hot.

Chocolate Swirl Bread

Chocolate Swirl Bread is a sweet bread which can be eaten on its own without applying any butter, jam, kaya or any other spreads. It is a lightly textured bread made with bread flour, milk, sugar, butter, yeast and egg. The chocolate dough is placed on top of the plain dough and then rolled to be baked. You may add nuts, raisins or chocolate chips in between the dough to add more flavour to the bread.

Ingredients

• 420 g bread flour
• 18 g milk powder
• 60 g sugar (May add slightly more for an even sweeter loaf.)
• 6 g salt
• 55 g butter
• 2 tsp yeast
• 1 grade A egg
• 190 g water
• 10 g Dutch processed cocoa powder

Method:

• Add dry ingredients - bread flour, milk powder, sugar, salt and yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer.

• Add water and egg to the bowl.

• Knead the ingredients till a dough ball is formed.

• Add butter to the dough and knead the dough till all the butter is incorporated.

• Continue to knead till it almost reaches window pane stage.

• Take out the dough and divide it into 2.

• Add cocoa powder to 1 dough. Knead the dough till the cocoa powder is evenly incorporated into the dough. Continue to knead the dough till it reaches widow pane stage. Knead it into a ball and put it into a lightly greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a cling wrap and let the dough rise till double in size.

• Continue to knead the plain dough till it reaches window pane stage. Knead it into a ball and put it into a lightly greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a cling wrap and let the dough rise till double in size.

• Take out the plain dough and roll it into a rectangle (about 1 cm thickness). (I rolled my dough on a slightly greased silicon mat.) Use the width of your loaf pan to guide you on the width of your dough. (I use an 8 inch x 4 inch x 4 inch loaf pan. I greased and lined my pan with parchment paper.)

• Repeat the same for the chocolate dough. Ensure that the size of the rectangle is similar to that of the plain dough.

• Roll up the chocolate dough on the rolling pin and unroll it on top of the plain rectangular plain dough.

• Slightly roll the dough so that they stick to each other.

• Roll up the dough and place them into your loaf pan.

• Let it rise till double in size.

• Before baking egg-wash the top of the dough.

• Bake in a pre-heated oven at 175 deg C for 30-35 minutes.

• Once baked let the loaf sit in the tin for about 5 minutes.

• Remove the loaf and let it cool down completely on a wire rack before slicing it up.