British scone

I have good memory of scone from a restaurant, it is always served warm with strawberry jam. It is only for breakfast time though...

Now I found this recipe, you can eat it for breakfast or tea time or both haha :)

Ingredients (about 45 scones)
6 1/4 cup flour*
pinch of salt
1/4 cup & 2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder

170g cold butter, diced

4 large eggs
1 3/4 cups whole milk

0.5 egg - beaten
Granulated sugar

*healthy version: 1/2 all purpose flour, 1/2 whole wheat flour

Serve with
heavy cream/ butter
strawberry/ raspberry jam


Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 220°c
Line 2 baking sheets on the trays and set aside

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, salt, sugar, baking powder. 
Make a well in the center, add in butter and rub in with your finger tips, blend the pieces as small as possible.

3. Add the egg & milk into the flour mixture

Note: You may not need 1 3/4cup milk, it depends on the flour you use. You can add 1 cup first, let it mix, then add the rest little by little

4. Place the dough on a lightly floured working surface
Knead lightly and shape the dough into a ball, roll and flatten the dough until it's 1.5" thick
Use a 2" biscuit cutter to cut out the scones, transfer to tray

5. A small bow of 0.5 egg - brush it on the top of each scone
Sprinkle each scone with granulated sugar

Note: be careful not to cover the egg mixture on the edges, which will hinder the rise of scones

6. Bake the scones for 15mins or until the scones become golden brown
When it's done, cool the scones down on a wire rack

Serve warm with heavy cream/butter and strawberry/raspberry jam!

Enjoy!

Indian lentil dish - Tadka Dal

I am so happy to find this recipe, I like lentil so much :) It is very nutritive, which is widely used in Indian cuisine.

Ingredients
250g yellow lentil* - washed & drained
1.2 litres water
1 tsp turmeric powder

3 tbsp vegetable oil
Pinch of asafoetida (replace by 1/2 diced onion)
2 green chillies slit lengthwise
1tsp cumin seeds
10-12 curry leaves
4 cloves of garlic - sliced or roughly crushed

2 tomatoes roughly chopped
Salt to taste
pinch of sugar
juice of half a lemon

Chopped coriander for garnish


*Can use red lentil


Instructions
1. In a medium sauce pan, add yellow lentil with the water and turmeric powder. Stir and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to a medium, partially cover with lid and cook for 35-40 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Stir a few times through the cooking process. Add a little more water if the mix is too thick. Cool slightly and roughly mash with a potato masher or a hand blender and set aside.

Note: If you use red lentil, you just need about 15mins to cook throughly the lentil

2. In a heavy bottom sauce pan heat the oil at medium heat, add the asafoetida (onion), slit green chillies and cumin seeds; fry for a few seconds. Now add the curry leaves and garlic continue to fry for 5 seconds.

3. Put in the tomatoes and fry for 5 minutes. At this stage, tip in the cooked lentil and stir well. Season to taste, add a pinch of sugar, simmer gently for 2-3 minutes on a low heat stirring halfway through. Turn the heat off and add lemon juice and garnish with coriander. 

Serve hot with your choice of bread or plain rice.

Note: If you’d like the dal to be thicker simmer for an additional 2 minutes without a lid making sure to stir well.

Italian genuine lasagna

Italian loves simple food, with fresh ingredients. They do not like adding too many seasoning so that they can taste the original flavor of the food.

My friend who stayed in Italy learnt the traditional way to make lasagna, I am surprised how simple it can be (I have seen many complicated recipes....)! It is genuine family dish for everyday life.

This is vegetarian version - 

I replaced beef by mushroom and spinach

Ingredients
Olive oil
2 cloves of garlic (just remove skin, cut each clove half)
500g minced beef
1L tomato juice
2 tomatoes, diced
2tbsp cottage cheese (remove water)
50g mozzarella (for pizza - the package has NO water)

400g cottage cheese (remove water)
400g mozzarella, diced (for pizza - the package has NO water)
salt & pepper

12-14 Lasagna sheets

Instructions
1. In a pot, put olive oil and garlic, fry it until you smell the flavor

2. Add in minced beef, fry it until it becomes golden color

3. Add in tomato juice, tomatoes, cottage cheese, mozzarella, salt & pepper, mix well and let it cook until boil
Turn off the heat after the mixture boils for another 10 mins

4. To assemble the lasagne, on a rectangular pan:
Pour olive oil to grease the pan

Preheat the oven at 180°c

5. Lay lasagne sheets to cover the bottom, add the tomato beef mixture to cover the sheets, with a table spoon - add some cottage cheese without mixing it, you'll find white spots on the sauce, then sprinkle mozzarella over the pan

6. Repeat step 5 for 2 times

7. Put the pan into the oven and bake for 30mins or until the surface become golden color

Enjoy!

Chocolate chips/ walnut & cranberry scone

I love making these buttery scones, they taste so so so delicious, I could finish them up fast!
This time I made chocolate chips & cranberry scones, just love it.

Ingredients

170g butter
4g salt
85g sugar
405g flour
1tsp baking powder

1 egg
55g 30% fat cream

70g cranberry
70g chocolate chips OR walnuts

Instructions
1. In a large mixing bowl, mix butter, salt, sugar, mix well
Add in flour & baking powder, mix well

2. Add in egg and cream, mix well
Add in cranberry and chocolate chips OR walnuts, mix it briefly

3. Place the dough on the working surface, knead the dough with your hands
Roll the dough into ball, and squeeze it flat
Wrap the dough by plastic wrap, put the dough into fridge for 30mins

4. After 30mins, preheat the oven at 190°c

5. Divide the dough into 2, which is easier to work with half
Roll one portion out to about 1.5cm
Use cookie cutter to to cut the dough

6. Line the baking tray with baking sheet
Place the dough on the baking tray, put the tray into the oven and bake for 25mins

Serve hot
Enjoy!

Niangao for celebrating Chinese New Year

Niangao is traditional cake, it is actually from glutinous flour. We only need few ingredients to make this delicious cake, with correct techniques, it can be chewy and soft.

We like serving hot with coated egg

Ingredients (8" found pan)
450g cane sugar
3 1/4cup water

600g glutinous flour
38g rice flour

Serve:
2-3 eggs

Instructions
1. In a pot, cook sugar and water, until sugar completely dissolved into water
Turn off the heat, let it cool down
Set aside

2. In a mixing bowl, mix flour, add in syrup several times,  little by little, until it can form a ball
Knead the dough until the surface becomes shiny

3. Add in the rest of the syrup, mix carefully
It will become liquid

4. In a wok or a deep pot for steaming, pour water and boil it

Note 1: Pour enough water to steam the cake for 2 hours
Note 2: Use lid with curved shape, not flat shape, so that water won't drop onto the cake surface while steaming

5. Grease the pan, pour the mixture into the pan
Wrap the surface by plastic wrap

6. When water boils, put the pan to steam for 2 hours at medium high heat or until the cake is completely cook
To test the cake, insert a chopstick, if it comes out clean = ready

Note 2: Do not open the lid all the time, the cake won't cook well

7. Let the cake cool down
When it is cool, store it in the fridge overnight to let the cake fix, the next morning you can serve it!

To serve:
1. In a small bowl, beat eggs

2. Slice the cake into 0.5cm (less than 1cm) pieces, coat the cake with eggs

3. On a frying pan, fry the slices of cake until golden brown color, flip it over and fry another side until golden brown color also

Serve hot!

Enjoy!

Matcha milk sauce (green tea)

I found it on facebook, that matcha milk sauce is popular now, let me try it also :)
If you are fan of matcha, you will love it, the flavor is very strong.

All you need is time, yes, it does takes time to cook it.

Ingredients
50ml warm evaporated milk*
10g matcha/greentea powder

150ml evaporated milk*
100ml cream
15g sugar

*Original recipe is whole milk, but it has higher water content, so I replace it by evaporated milk

Instructions
1. In a small bowl, mix warm milk and matcha together, mix well until the matcha powder dissolved completely into the warm milk

Note: Use a tea spoon to press/squeeze the matcha powder at the edge of the small bowl, it helps to blend the powder into the milk

2. In a pot, heat the milk, cream and sugar at medium heat, let it cook until about 2/3 of the mixture is evaporated, here you need patient to observe the mixture

Attention: Use a spetula to stir it regularly so that the milk won't burn

3. Add in the matcha milk into the pot, mix well

Let it cook, stir it regularly, let the water evaporate

How do you know it is ready?
i/ When you stir the mixture with spetula, it leaves stirring mark. 
ii/ You can also see the bottom being scarped clean while you stir the mixture

4. Scrap the mixture and pour it into a tight container, store it in fridge

Enjoy!

Lemon cake - recipe

It is one of my favorite breakfast, I checked the blog and I haven't posted it yet! Oh that is impossible! I have made it so many times haha!

I love poppy seeds and I was too happy to add a lot here :p

Different piping tips got different decorating effects

Ingredients:
100g sugar
100g butter (room temperature)
3 eggs
250g flour
2/3 package of baking powder
3 lemons

Optional:
about 1/2tsp baking soda
poppy seeds or almond flakes

Instructions:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°c. Mix sugar and butter together. Add eggs - 1 by 1

2. Incorporate flour & baking powder little by little
Note: If you add baking soda, then add with baking powder

3. Add in lemon juice of 2 lemons
Note: you can add zest of lemon to give more lemon flavor

4. Add poppy seeds or the almond flakes on the top if you like. Pour the mixture into a cake mold and bake for 35-40mins or until the top becomes golden yellow

5. Once you take the cake out of the oven, pour the juice of the last lemon

Enjoy!