Homemade Fresh Pasta

One of the most luckiest things I came across last week was getting a pasta machine from  Kmart. Believe it or not. It’s 15 dollars. Here, you can’t get one without 100 dollars, or even 145 dollars from those classy department stores. I was too lazy and not motivated to make any fresh pasta until I got this new kitchen toy. There’s nothing wrong with using the ready made pasta from supermarkets, very quick and handy. Yet nothing can compare with homemade fresh pasta, given you have a bit of spare time. The process is simple and easy. All you need is a pasta machine to help you roll out a dough made by 3 to 4 ingredients and cut them within a minute.

By adding a small amount of Semolina flour that is commonly used in making pasta, you’ll enjoy delicious pasta with a hint of wheat flavour, light yellow colour and stretchy texture.

Read More

Hokkaido Milk Toast (Tangzhong Method)

This Hokkaido Milk Toast (北海道牛奶麵包) is very soft and fluffy and can be kept soft for more days.

Here comes another tangzhong recipe again, my favourite Hokkaido Milk Toast (北海道牛奶麵包).

Yes, I’m really addicted to making breads with tangzhong (湯種 aka water roux). It’s the most reliable method to make soft and fluffy breads as far as I know. The bread can be kept for days and still very soft and fluffy. Best of all, the method is very natural, no chemicals needed.

See the inner fluffy structure of this bread.

Read More

Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Feta Pie

I didn’t know that my daughter is a big fan of feta cheese until I baked this Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Feta Pie. When I was about to sprinkle the feta onto the vegetables, she grabbed a big piece of it. She told me that’s her favourite cheese after enjoying the big bite. Not surprisingly, I found my hubby is not quite into the cheese. My daughter’s palate is quite different from my hubby’s. Being a home cook, I always have to juggle, sometimes swing back and forth in cooking some western and oriental dishes to suit their different palates.

Nearly half of the 8 inch pie was eaten by my daughter. As for myself, I love the shortcrust, as it’s easy to make and yummy. The caramelized onion was cooked with a well-balanced sweet and tangy taste, going so well with the pumpkin and sweet potato.

Read More

Red Bean and Black Glutinous Rice Dessert

Here comes a traditional Chinese dessert, red bean sweet soup, that was requested by my reader via email. This popular dessert has many different versions, widely accepted around South Asian countries. If you go for a traditional Chinese banquet, you’ll notice this dessert would often be served to wrap up the dinner. Lotus seeds are always paired with red beans in Chinese dessert. Kindly note that right in the middle of a lotus seed, there is a dark green core. It must be removed before cooking because you don’t want your dessert turns bitter. I also added black glutinous rice this time. The black glutinous rice is very healthy, rich with vitamins B and helps strengthen our blood system. It’s very popular to top with some coconut cream when served.

Read More

Stir-fried Green Beans with Minced Pork (乾扁四季豆)

This stir-fried green beans with minced pork dish is very popular and you can easily find it on the menu of every Chinese restaurant. But they might have different versions, whether it’s stir fried with pork mince or just omit the pork as a vegan dish. It goes really well with steamed rice.

Green beans (四季豆) are so good to have in every meal. It also can be used in any cuisine. In Chinese cooking, my daughter likes it briefly fried in hot oil in order to enhance its natural sweetness, then stir fried with ground pork, blended with some hot spices and sauces.

Read More

Stir Fried Spinach with Salted Egg

Having made a few salted eggs at home, I couldn’t wait to try how they tasted like and made several traditional Chinese dishes with them. My dear readers, when you read this post, please don’t take the said sentence word by word literally, even though I intended to cook some traditional Chinese dishes. Truly, the dish I share today came from a very popular traditional one, yet I changed a lot in the way of using ingredients and cooking.

When it comes to stir frying spinach, both century egg (皮蛋) and salted egg（鹹蛋）are widely used in order to create a combination of silver-like and golden colours mingled with jade-like spinach. On top of that, the dish has a very beautiful title, 金銀蛋菠菜 (literally means “Silver and Golden Eggs with Spinach”). The dish itself is quite humble, yet both the taste and name of the dish are very appealing. Well, when I cooked this dish again, I deliberately omitted the century egg. That said, many imprudent producers incorporate more poisonous lead into the curing process than before, that really puts me off. Since then, I haven’t eaten any century eggs for ages. Here comes my version, Golden Egg with Spinach.

Read More

Nutella Cream Horns (Tangzhong Method)

I’m so addicted to making bread with tangzhong. That’s the most reliable and amazing method to make soft and fluffy breads I found so far. Last week I made two batches of cream horns with Nutella cream inside. I always keep at least one bottle of Nutella in my pantry as my daughter sometimes likes to have it on toasts for supper. I whipped a few tablespoons of Nutella into the cream and pipe them inside the horns that just cooled a bit after popping out from the oven. Oh, I have to confess that it’s so amazing that I couldn’t resist eating one after one.

Read More