Tang Yuan

Winter Solstice occurs between 21st to 23rd December in the Northern Hemisphere when one of the earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. The longest night and shortest day are experienced here. At the same time the opposite happens in the Southern Hemisphere which is experiencing Summer Solstice with longest day and shortest night.

In Chinese, "dong" means winter and "zhi" means arrival. So dongzhi means arrival of winter. The winter solstice traditions were created to celebrate the "birth of the sun" and is marked by rituals like eating winter solstice foods, for example, the glutinous rice balls or tang yuan.

Generally, the tang yuan are cooked in syrup. However, there are some people who cook them in savoury soup with pork balls or sliced pork and vegetables. Tang yuan comes in different sizes but for ease of eating, I usually make them with about 1 cm diameter or 5 gm each small ball. They also come in different colours; for health reason, nowadays natural ingredients are used to colour them, for example, blue pea flowers for blue tang yuan, pandan leaves for green, orange sweet potatoes for orange, purple sweet potatoes for purple, beetroot for red, pumpkin for yellow, carrots for orange, red dragon fruit for red and so on. Some tang yuan are filled with crushed peanuts or red or black bean paste to name a few.

I have experimented to come up with tang yuan which are of a good texture, neither too softy nor too hard. And I willl be using these measurements to ensure this texture in future years to come. I usually make 5-6 different colours of tang yuan.

Ingredients:

• White tang yuan:
• 75 g glutinous rice flour
• 60 g water

• Green tang yuan
• 75 g glutinous rice flour
• 8 - 10 pandan leaves grind with 70 g water to obtain 60 g pandan juice

• Orange tang yuan
• 75 g glutinous rice flour
• 55 g orange sweet potato
• 40g water

• Red tang yuan
• 75 g glutinous rice flour
• 60 g dragon fruit
• 5 g water (little water is used as the dragon fruit is very juicy)

• Purple tang yuan
• 75 g glutinous rice flour
• 100 g purple sweet potato
• 35 g water

• Blue tang yuan:
• 75 g glutinous rice flour
• 10 fresh blue pea flowers
• 60 g water

• 1.5 litre of water
• 150 g sugar (or less or more depending on the level of sweetness you desire)
• 4-5 pandan leaves

Method:

Step 1: Preparing the dough

• For white tang yuan:
• Add glutinous rice to a bowl.
• Add water to the bowl.
• Mix and knead them till a smooth dough is formed.
• Weigh them into 5 g dough.
• Roll them into balls.
• Arrange them on a tray and cover them to prevent them from hardening.

• For green colour tang yuan
• Add glutinous rice flour and pandan juice to a bowl.
• Mix and knead them till a smooth dough is formed.
• Weigh them into 5 g dough.
• Roll them into balls.
• Arrange them on a tray and cover them to prevent them from hardening.

• For orange colour tang yuan
• Steam orange sweet potato till soft.
• Add them to the glutinous rice flour while they are hot.
• Add water.
• Mix and knead them till a smooth dough is formed.
• Weigh them into 5 g dough.
• Roll them into balls.
• Arrange them on a tray and cover them to prevent them from hardening. 

• For red colour tang yuan:
• Skin and mash the dragon fruit.
• Add them to the glutinous rice flour.
• Add water.
• Mix and knead them till a smooth dough is formed.
• Weigh them into 5 g dough.
• Roll them into balls.
• Arrange them on a tray and cover them to prevent them from hardening.

• For purple colour tang yuan:
• Steam purple sweet potato till soft.
• Add them to the glutinous rice flour while they are hot.
• Add water.
• Mix and knead them till a smooth dough is formed.
• Weigh them into 5 g dough.
• Roll them into balls.
• Arrange them on a tray and cover them to prevent them from hardening. 

• For blue tang yuan:
• Steep or soak the blue pea (take only the petals) in hot water for half an hour.
• Sieve the soaked flowers to obtain the blue water.
•  Add the glutinous rice to a bowl.
• Add the blue water to the bowl.
• Mix and knead them till a smooth dough is formed.
• Weigh them into 5 g dough.
• Roll them into balls.
• Arrange them on a tray and cover them to prevent them from hardening.

Step 2: Making the syrup.

• Boil a pot of water.
• Add the pandan leaves and sugar to the pot.
• Stir to ensure that the sugar is dissolved.
• Turn off the fire and remove the pandan leaves.
• Let the syrup cool down completely.

Step 3

• Prepare a pot of cold boiled water.

Step 4: Boiling the dough

• Boil a pot of water.
• When the water is boiling add the white tang yuan to them.
• When the tang yuan is cooked (they float in the water when cooked), scoop them up into a pot of cold boiled water.
• Transfer the tang yuan to the pot of syrup.
• Do not stir the tang yuan.

Step 5: Repeat steps 3 and 4 till all the dough balls have been cooked. Always change the water in Step 4 when you are cooking a different colour dough to ensure that there is no contamination of the various colours.

Step 6: Leave the pot of tang yuan on your counter top till the next day. (I always make my tang yuan on the eve of the Winter Solstice Festival.

Butter and Cheese Bread Rolls

 

 

Many people love Cinnamon Rolls. However, for a change you can replace the cinnamon powder with butter and cheese of your choice and there you have Butter and Cheese Bread Rolls which are equally yummy. The method of making the latter involves folding the dough before it is rolled up. This is to create more layers in the dough thereby making it even softer.

Ingredients:

• 205 g warm milk
• 205 g warm water
• 50 g sugar
• 10 g yeast
• 100 g corn oil
• 1 egg white
• 650 g bread flour
• 10 g salt
• 40 g melted butter
• 100 g Cheddar cheese

Instructions:

• Activate the yeast:
• Add warm milk and warm water to the bowl of a mixer.
• Add the sugar and yeast to the bowl.
• Stir and wait for 5-10 minutes for bubbles to be formed.

• Once the yeast has been activated, add corn oil and egg white to the yeast mixture.

• Then add the bread flour and salt to it.

• Knead till window pane is achieved.

• Rest the dough till it doubles in size.

• Punch down the dough to de-gas.

• Flour your counter top.

• Transfer the dough onto it and shape it into a ball.

• Roll out the dough to a rectangle, 20 inches x 12 inches. (If you do not have a big counter space, you may divide the dough into 2.

• Spread melted butter onto it.

• Fold one third (bottom) of the dough (long side) to the centre third.

• Spread melted butter onto the folded side.

• Fold the other third (top) onto the centre third.

• Spread melted butter onto the folded side.

• Now you would have a long rectangle.

• Fold a third (right) of the dough onto the centre third.

• Spread melted butter onto the folded side.

• Fold the other third (left) onto the centre third.

• Now you would have a somewhat square dough.

• Rest the dough for 10 minutes.

• Roll the square dough into a rectangle, 20 inches x 12 inches.

• Brush butter onto the rectangle.

• Sprinkle shredded cheese onto it.

• Swiss roll up the dough along the long side.

• Slice the dough into the number of pieces you want.

• Place them onto a baking pan which is lined with greased parchment paper.

• Let it proof till double in size.

• Egg wash (using the egg yolk which is added with some water).

• Bake the slices in a pre-heated oven at 175 deg C for 25 minutes.

• Remove them from the baking pan and let them cool on a metal rack.

• They can be eaten on their own or spread with jam.

Sambal Dried Prawns Buns

Sometimes it is good to give our family a change. Most of the time I bake sweet buns for breakfast. However, once in a while I like to make some savoury ones. Sambal Hae Bee buns is one of those savoury buns that I baked recently. I broke the process into two, making the sambal hae bee one day earlier.    

Ingredient:

• 250 ml warm milk
• 45 g sugar
• 6 g yeast
• 1 egg
• 6 g salt
• 500 g bread flour
• 80 g butter
• Egg wash - 1 egg + 1 tbsp milk

• Filling - Refer to Sambal Hae Bee recipe in this blog.

Instructions:

• Activate the yeast:

• Add warm milk to a bowl (retain 50 mil for later use)
• Add sugar to the bowl.
• Add instant yeast to the bowl.
• Stir and wait for 5-10 minutes for bubbles to be formed.

• Add yeast mixture, egg, salt and bread flour to the bowl.

• Knead till a dough ball is formed. (Add the retained milk if your dough is too dry.)

• Add butter to the dough ball.

• Continue to knead till window pane is achieved.

• Grease a clean bowl and transfer the dough to it. Cover the bowl with a cling wrap.

• Once the dough has doubled in size, transfer it to your counter top.

• Punch down the dough to degas.

• Form the dough into a ball.

• Divide your dough ball into smaller dough balls. (My small dough ball weighs 37 g each.)

• Roll each dough ball flat and put a tsp (or more if you prefer) of sambal hae bee in the centre. Pinch the edge of the circle to cover the sambal. Roll the dough into a small dough and place it into a cup cake liner. Place the latter into the muffin tray. Repeat till all the dough balls have been filled with the sambal.

• Cover them and let them rise till double in size.

• Meanwhile pre-heat your oven to 175 deg C.

• Once the dough balls have double in size, egg wash them.

• Bake them for 18-20 minutes. (Tent your pan with aluminium foil if your oven is too hot and the top of the buns are turning dark too soon.)

• When baked, remove the buns from the muffin tray and transfer them to a metal rack to let them cool down.

    Alternatively,

• Roll the dough into a rectangle, 12 inches by 10 inches.

• Spread the sambal hae bee onto it.

• Swiss roll it up the long edge.

• Place it onto a baking tray.

• Cover and let it proof.

• Once it has risen to twice the size, egg wash it.

• Bake it for 30 - 35 minutes.

• Once done, let it cook down on a metal rack before slicing it up.

• Enjoy.

Sang Har Mee

 

Sang Har Mee is a delicious noodle dish usually enjoyed by those who love the huge succulent prawns with their delectable flavour of natural sweetness. Due to this I have not added any oyster sauce nor fish sauce like some chefs do. In addition to the sweetness of the prawns, the yee mee also adds its own flavour to the thickened egg broth. While it is relatively easy to cook this noodle dish, it may be a bit difficult to find the prawns in the market as most would have been snapped up especially by the restaurants offering this dish. And eating in these restaurants may set you back by a couple of hundreds.

 Ingredients:

• 4 pcs Yee Mee
• 2 large prawns
• 3 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 pc ginger, 2 inch x 0.5 inch, sliced thinly
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 small bunch of green onion, 4 inches long
• 1.5-2 litres of water
• 6 big leaves of Chinese cabbage, cut to 1-inch length 
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp corn flour + 4 tbsp water
• 2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine

Instructions:

• Wash and slice the huge prawns into 2 each. (Start by placing the prawn on its side. Using a sharp knife/chopper, slice through the shell along the side to cut the body into 2 with the head still intact. Next, turn the prawn onto its back with the 2 sides apart. Place the knife/chopper on the middle of the head and use your hand to hit the knife/chopper to cut the head into 2.). Remove the entrails.

• Heat up the wok with cooking and sesame oils.

• Add the ginger, garlic and green onion to the oil.

• When these are fragrant, add the water to the oil and let it boil.

• Add the prawns to the boiling water. If your prawns are very big, boil them for about 4-5 minutes till they are cooked. Smaller prawns require about 2-3 minutes. Remove the prawns and set them aside.

• Add the Chinese cabbage to the broth.

• Add the seasonings of salt, light soy sauce, pepper and brown sugar.

• Break the eggs into a bowl and then add them to the broth.

• Add Chinese cooking wine.

• Add the corn flour slurry to thicken the sauce.

• Add the yee mee to the wok for a couple of minutes (if you like to braise the yee mee). Otherwise, place the yee mee onto your serving plates and pour the broth over it. Top it with the cooked prawns.

• Serve it immediately.

Sambal Hae Bee / Sambal Dried Prawns

 

Sambal Hae Bee or Sambal Udang Kering is one of the most delicious condiment as it is made from tasty dried prawns and the aromatic spices. It is sweet, salty, mildly sour and very fragrant. It is best eaten with white rice. However, I like to eat it with bread - sandwich it with cucumber. Sambal Hae Bee can also be used as fillings for bread and pulut panggang.

 Ingredients:

• 125 g dried prawns
• 10 g dried chilies
• 100 g fresh red chilies
• 125 g shallots
• 40 g garlic
• 5 g fresh turmeric
• 50 g lemongrass
• 5 pieces of kaffir lime leaves
• 5 g belacan
• 30 g tamarind juice
• 100 g cooking oil
• 35 g brown sugar
• 4 g salt

Method:

• Wash, soak and pound the dried prawns. (It is not advisable to use the blender as the dried prawns would be too fine. It is best to use the mortar and pestle to pound the dried prawns so that they are slightly coarse.)

• Wash and soak the dried chilies. Cut them into small pieces when they have softened.

• Wash and cut the fresh red chilies into small pieces

• Peel and wash the shallots. Cut them up coarsely.

• Peel and wash the garlic. Cut them up coarsely.

• Remove the skin of the turmeric.

• Wash and slice the white part of the lemongrass finely.

• Wash the kaffir lime leaves. Remove the midrib and petiole. Slice the leaves finely.

• Take a knob of tamarind, add water and extract 30 g of tamarind juice.

• Toast the belacan.

• Weigh out the brown sugar and salt (may add or reduce them - to taste).

• Add dried chilies, fresh red chilies, shallots, garlic, turmeric, lemongrass and belacan into the container of the blend. Blend till they are fine.

• Heat up the wok with cooking oil.

• Once the oil is hot, add the blended ingredients to the oil.

• Saute till they are aromatic.

• Add the pounded dried prawns and continue to fry them for another 7-8 minutes.

• Add the finely cut kaffir lime leaves.

• Add the tamarind juice, sugar and salt. Taste test and add more tamarind juice, sugar or salt according to your taste.

• Stir for another 5 minutes or so and your sambal hae bee is ready.

Chocolate Rolls

Chocolate rolls are rolled bread filled with chocolate sauce. Like cinnamon rolls, they are great for breakfast or tea breaks. It is a good alternative for those who do not like the taste and smell of cinnamon. The method of making them is similar.

Ingredients:

• 515 g bread flour
• 50 g brown sugar
• 20 g milk powder
• 6 g yeast
• 6 g salt
• 200 g whipping cream or heavy cream
• 110 g warm milk
• 2 eggs

Method:

• Put the flour, sugar, milk, yeast and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer.

• Add the whipping or heavy cream, warm milk and eggs to the bowl. It is good practice to break the egg first into a smaller bowl before adding it to the mixing bowl to avoid adding eggs which are not fresh or rotten to it.

• Knead the ingredients into a smooth dough and until window pane is achieved. (This is important for a soft and fluffy roll.)

• Grease a bowl with oil.

• Remove the dough from the bowl and put it into the greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a cling wrap.

• Leave the dough to proof until it doubles in size.

• Once it has doubled in size, remove the dough from the bowl onto a slightly floured table-top.

• Punch down the dough to release the gas in it.

• Knead it manually for about 5 minutes.

• Roll it into a big round dough.

• Roll out the dough into 15 inch x 11 inch rectangle.

• Pre-heat oven to 170 degree Celsius.

• Spread the chocolate sauce onto the rectangular dough. (Please find the chocolate sauce recipe in this blog.)

• Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into long strips.

• Roll up each strip and place it into a cupcake liner or muffin tin (roll up tightly if you prefer a pointed top) or you may place the rolled dough side by side in a 15 inch x 11 inch baking pan. (I managed to obtain 22 pieces of rolled dough.)

• Cover the rolls and let them proof to double in size.

• Once the dough balls have doubled in size, bake them in the oven for about 20 minutes.

• Remove the pan from the oven.

• Remove the buns immediately onto a cooling metal rack.

• Enjoy. 

Homemade Chocolate Sauce

Chocolate sauce is a sweet delicious condiment which has a lot of uses. It can be used as a topping for your ice cream, muffins and cakes or as a spread for your bread. It can also be used in making your chocolate milk shake and ice cream. It is very easy to make and costs very much less when made at home. And most of the time, the ingredients to make it are available at home. Although the recipe for making it is provided here, you can vary the quantity of each ingredient to suit your taste - either less bitter or sweeter. You can also vary the consistency of your chocolate sauce; if it is too runny, you may heat it a bit longer to thicken it. I usually make it when I have a lot of whipping or heavy cream remaining after my baking.

Ingredients:

• 80 g butter
• 100 g whipping cream
• 65 g brown sugar
• 15 g cocoa powder
• 5 g instant coffee

Method:

• Weigh all ingredients into a heat proof bowl.

• Put the bowl over a pot of boiling water (Bain-marie) without the bottom touching the boiling water.

• Stir the ingredients using a spatula.

• When the sugar, cocoa powder and coffee have dissolved and the sauce is shiny, remove it from the heat.

• The sauce will thicken as it cools down.

• After it has completely cooled down, transfer it to a glass bottle and keep it in the fridge if you are using it as a spread for your bread.

• However, if you are using it as a ganache, it is better to use it when it is still warm and runny.

Cheesey Potato Buns

 

Potatoes can be found abundantly in our country throughout the year. Due to their availability they are very useful in our daily cooking and baking. They can be stir-fried, deep-fried, braised, stewed, boiled and baked. I have used potatoes in making bread loaves and buns. They made these loaves and buns very soft for many days on the counter-top.

Ingredients:

• 200 g mash potato
• 650 g bread flour
• 7 g yeast
• 45 g sugar
• 10 g salt
• 1 Grade A egg
• 260 g warm milk
• 70 g butter
• 60 g grated Mozzarella cheese

Method:

• Peel the potatoes, cut them into thick slices and boil them till they are soft.

• Once they are soft, remove them from the pot and mash them. Set them aside.

• Add the flour, yeast, sugar and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer.

• Next, add the egg and warm milk.

• Knead the dough till a ball has been formed.

• Add the butter and continue kneading till window pane is achieved.

• Grease a bowl.

• Transfer the dough to the bowl. Cover the bowl with a cling wrap and let the dough proof till it is doubled in size.

• Punch down the dough.

• Slightly flour the counter-top.

• Transfer the dough onto the counter-top.

• Knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Form a big dough ball.

• Cut the dough ball into 16 pieces.

• Roll each piece into a ball and place it onto a cake liner.

• Repeat till all the dough has been rolled up.

• Let the dough balls proof a second time.

• Once they have risen and are ready for baking, spread the grated cheese on top.

• Bake them in a pre-heated oven at 175 degrees C for about 18 minutes.

• Remove the buns from the oven once they are baked.

Chocolate Bread

 

On most mornings we have bread for breakfast as it is convenient. The type of bread depends on what I decide to bake in the morning or the night before. Usually sourdough, no knead ciabatta and focaccia breads take a longer time to prepare and bake so I have to do it a day earlier before we can enjoy them. Others require only 1 or 2 proofing and can be made on the day that we want to eat. 

Ingredients:

• 640 g bread flour
• 60 g cocoa powder
• 120 g castor sugar
• 2 tsp yeast
• 2 tsp salt
• 290 ml warm milk
• 2 grade A eggs
• 75 g butter
• 100 g chocolate shavings
• Topping - chocolate chips or any nuts

Method:

• Put the bread flour, cocoa power, sugar, yeast and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer.

• Turn on low speed to mix all the ingredients.

• Add milk into the bowl.

• Add in the eggs.

• Knead the ingredients until the dough forms into a ball.

• Add butter to the dough and continue to knead.

• Knead the dough till window pane is achieved.

• Grease a clean bowl.

• Transfer the dough to the greased bowl.

• Cover the bowl with a cling wrap and let the dough proof till it doubles in size.

• Once the dough has doubled in size, transfer it to a slightly floured surface.

• Punch down the dough and knead it by hand for another 5-10 minutes.

• Shape the dough back into a dough.

• Roll out the dough into a rectangle.

• Spread the chocolate shavings onto the rectangle.

• Roll up the dough according to the length of the bread pan. (I use a 9 inch x 4 inch x 4 inch bread pan.)

• Cover the bread pan with a moist towel and let it proof a second time.

• Pre-heat the oven at 175 deg C.

• When the dough is ready to be baked, brush the top with some milk. Spread some chocolate chips or nuts on top.

• Bake at 175 degrees Centigrade for 25 minutes.

• When done, remove the pan from the oven immediately and the bread from the pan.

• Wait for the bread to be cooled down before slicing it up.

Spinach Egg Roll

Spinach Egg Roll is a very delicious dish. Stir-fried spinach by itself tastes very good and if enclosed in eggs will taste even better. It is simple to be cooked up especially when most of us would definitely have this vegetable and eggs in our refrigerator. Most of the time when I stir-fry spinach, I would remove some to be made into spinach egg roll.

Ingredients:

• 150 g spinach
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp light soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• Some cooking oil

• 3 eggs
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp light soy sauce
• Some cooking oil

Method:

• Heat up some cooking oil in a wok.
• Sauce the garlic till fragrant.
• Add the spinach.
• Season it with salt, light soy sauce and pepper.
• Dish up when cooked.
• Let the spinach cool down.
• Drain it so that it is dry.
• Use a pair of kitchen scissors or knife to cut it into small pieces.
• Set aside.

• Separate egg white from the yolk.
• Add seasonings of salt, pepper and light soy sauce to the yolk.
• Brush some cooking oil onto a non-stick pan.
• Lightly beat the egg white and pour it into the non-stick pan.
• Swirl the pan so that the egg white covers the pan evenly.
• Wait for the egg white to cook slightly.
• Spread the cooked spinach onto one side of the egg white.
• Using a spatula, roll up the egg white to cover the spinach, pulling the egg white to the edge of the pan as you roll it up and leaving a space for the egg yolk.
• Pour the egg yolk into that space to join up with the egg white.
• Wait for the egg yolk to cook and then continue to roll it up from where we stopped.
• Remove the roll from the pan.
• Slice it up and serve.

Pandan Min Chiang Kuih with Coconut Filling

 

Traditionally Min Chiang Kuih is made from plain wheat flour or all-purpose flour with fillings of peanut, sugar and butter. However, I have modified my recipe of this kuih by using pandan juice instead of water in mixing the batter. I have used coconut flakes to replace roasted peanuts as the filling.

Ingredients (for making 2 thick pieces of 24 cm in diameter):

Fillings:

• 120 g fresh coconut flakes
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 25 g castor sugar

Batter:

• 250 wheat flour or all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 50 g sugar
• 300 ml pandan juice (made from 10 pandans leaves)
• 2 eggs

Pan:

• 24 cm non-stick with cover

Method:

• Prepare the fillings.
• Steam the coconut flakes with salt.
• After steaming, set aside.

• Prepare the batter.
• Blend the pandan leaves with water to obtain 300 ml of pandan juice.
• Put the dry ingredients - flour, instant yeast, baking soda and sugar into a mixing bowl.
• Add the pandan juice to the dry ingredients.
• Whisk till the batter is smooth.
• Crack the two eggs into the batter.
• Mix until they are incorporated into the batter.
• Cover the batter with a cling wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes. (Important step for the batter to rise well during cooking.)

• Making the kuih.
• Put the non-stick pan over very low heat.
• Without greasing the pan, scoop 1/2 of the batter into the pan (to get a thick kuih).
• Swirl the pan so that the batter is spread evenly throughout.
• Cover the pan and let the batter cook for about 4-5 minutes or till holes are formed on the surface and the bottom is brown.
• Once the batter is cooked, remove the kuih onto a cutting board.
• Cut the kuih into 2.
• Sprinkle the coconut and sugar onto one half of the kuih.
• Cover it with the other half.
• Repeat the process until the other half of the batter is used up.
• Serve.

Yam Pork Rolls

My family and I love yam. I can easily buy yam during pasar tani days near my house. And most important the yam are very good; they are powdery and soft when cooked. Today I modified my Bak Kian recipe to incorporate yam into it to add a new dimension to the rolls. They are as tasty as the bak kian.

Ingredients:

• 500 g minced pork
• 300 g yam (without skin)
• 50 g finely chopped coriander
• 2 tbsp corn flour
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 1/2 tsp 5-spice powder
• 1 tsp white pepper powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 9-10 bean curd sheets cut to the size of 1/2 of an A4 paper
• A small bowl of water
• Cooking oil for frying

Method:

• Steam and mash yam. The texture depends on whether you would like to bite into the yam or not. I mash them roughly so that I can bite into tiny bits and pieces of them.

• Add minced pork to a large bowl.

• Add all the other ingredients to it and mix till they are well incorporated.

• Apportion these meat fillings into 9 or 10 portions as we do not want any leftover or insufficient fillings at the end. (Nine portions for a thicker roll and ten for a thinner one.)

• Get ready a small bowl of water for sealing the roll.

• Take a piece of the bean curd sheet and put 1 portion of the filling on top of it.

• Bring each shorter sides in.

• Then roll up the bean curd sheet with meat fillings from one end of the longer side to the other.

• Or, you can just roll up the longer side to the other end and just tuck the ends under the roll. (But I think you will get a neater roll with the earlier method.)

• Heat up a pan with cooking oil.

• When the oil is hot, put the rolls side by side.

• When the bottom has turned brown, flip the roll to the other side.

• Once this side has also turned brown, dish it out onto a plate lined with kitchen towel to soak up excess oil.

• Serve.

Cheesey Sweet Milk Buns

 

I love eating milk buns as they are rich, soft and fluffy. Sometimes I add fillings such as grated coconut cooked with gula Melaka to my milk buns to make them into Coconut Buns. At other times I add chocolate chips, garlic butter, sausages, chicken cocktails or cheese slices to my milk buns. Shaping of the buns depend on the fillings.

This round I added more sugar and topped the buns with lots of Mozzarella cheese to make them into Cheesey Sweet Milk Buns.

Ingredients:

• 550 g bread flour
• 40 g milk powder
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 100 g sugar
• 120 g warm water
• 130 g whipping cream
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• 50 g butter
• 100 g Mozzarella cheese or more

Instructions:

• Activate the yeast:
• Add warm water to a bowl.
• Add about half of the sugar to the bowl.
• Add instant yeast to the bowl.
• Stir and wait for 5-10 minutes for bubbles to be formed.

• Add bread flour, remaining sugar and salt to the bowl.

• Add yeast mixture, whipping cream and eggs to the bowl.

• Knead till a dough ball is formed.

• Add butter to the dough ball.

• Continue to knead till window pane is achieved.

• Grease a clean bowl and transfer the dough to it. Cover the bowl with a cling wrap.

• Once the dough has doubled in size, transfer it to your counter top.

• Punch down the dough to degas.

• Form the dough into a ball.

• Divide your dough ball into smaller dough balls. (My small dough ball weighs 30 g each.)

• Roll each dough ball and place them onto a greased and lined 15 inch x 11 inch pan. (This is my Swiss roll pan.)

• Cover the pan with cling wrap and let the dough balls rise till double in size.

• Meanwhile pre-heat your oven to 175 deg C.

• Once the dough balls have double in size, sprinkle grated Mozzarella cheese on top of them.

• Bake them for 20 minutes. (Tent your pan with aluminium foil if your oven is too hot and the top of the buns are turning dark too soon.)

• When baked, remove the buns from the parchment paper and pan onto a metal rack to let them cool down.

• Enjoy.