Easy Mocha Cake

I got this recipe from the internet but could not remember where. I was looking for an easy cake recipe to make and this particular one caught my eye. The original recipe was a cappucino cake but I changed it to mocha, replacing part of the coffee with cocoa. The cake turned out well and my daughters love it.

Ingredients
1 sponge cake (you can buy or bake)
250ml condensed milk
250ml water
2 tbsp instant coffee
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp gelatine

Method
1. Let gelatine bloom in water for about 10mins
2. Heat up gelatine+water mixture and once gelatine dissolves, add instant coffee and cocoa powder. Stir well till dissolved and no lumps
3. Turn heat off, add condensed milk and stir till well blended
4. Place sponge cake in a baking tin, pour mixture into baking tin
5. Chill in the fridge till set
6. Take the set cake out of the baking tin and frost it with whipping cream or buttercream if you like with chocolate flakes

Note: Use baking tin and NOT a cake ring

If you want to make a cappunico cake, replace the cocoa powder with instant coffee.

Potato with Tuna in Ginger & Soy

We had porridge for dinner today and I came up with this dish for my girls :D A very easy but pretty tasty dish suitable for kids. Nothing fancy, just potatoes, mixed vege and a can of heinz Tuna in Ginger & Soy.

This is the tuna that I used. You can get it Cold Storage easily if you can't find it at NTUC or other supermarket. Cold Storage is having an offer at $1.85 per can.

Ingredients

3 medium local potatoes, cubed
100gm mixed vege
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
1 can Heinz Tuna in Ginger & Soy
oil for frying

Method

1. Fry the potatoes till golden brown and put aside
2. Fry garlic and onions till soft and slightly brown
3. Add mixed vege and stir till cooked
4. Add potatoes and mix well
5. Dish out the potato/mix vege mix on a plate and top it with tuna flakes
6. Mix tuna and potatoes well and serve immediately

Green Tea Red Bean Flaky Mooncake

I finally got hold of a mooncake making book recommeded by Elaine from KC yesterday. This book has 33 recipes ranges from chilled mooncake to agar-agar version.

Seriously if you ask me, I do not know how good the recipes are since this is the first time I am making it. However the one I just made tasted pretty alright to me. Also based on the ingredients of the other recipes, they look pretty good.

My virgin attempt in making mooncake :D I still have not bought the mooncake mould, so I chose this one since it doesn't require one. Ok, this particular one that I have just made is supposed to have durian lotus seed paste. Since I only have red bean paste in my fridge, I used it but regretted for not adding melon seeds. I think it would have tasted even better.

The inside of the mooncake

Ingredients

A. Water Dough
100gm plain flour (the book put medium protein flour)
25gm castor sugar
40gm shortening
40gm water

B. Oil Dough
1 tsp bakeable green tea powder (I got this from Phoon Huat)
100gm plain flour (the book put medium protein flour)
40gm shortening
15gm butter

Filling
Red bean paste

OR you can use the durian and lotus seed paste

250gm lotus seed paste
25gm durian paste
25gm melon seeds/kuaci
3 salted egg yolk, halved

1. Mix lotus seed paste, durian paste and melon seeds evenly and cut into 6 equal portion of about 50gm each

Method

1. Blend ingredient A till the dough is smooth. Divide into 3 portions and rest for 10 min
2. Blend ingredient B till it becomes a dough and divide into 3 portions
3. Flatten A and wrap B in it and roll into a rectangular shape
4. Roll it up like a swissroll, turn it 90 degree clockwise and flatten it again
5. Roll it up like a swissroll again and cut into 2
6. With the cut side facing down, flatten the it into a round shape and wrap up filling to form a ball
7. Brush the top with egg white and sprinkle black sesame (original recipe uses poppy seeds)
8. Bake in preheated oven at 200 degree celcius for about 20-25mins

Beancurd & Beansprout in Coconut Milk Gravy (Lemak Taugeh & Tahu)

I realised that I have not been cooking lots of Malay dishes. For a change, cooked something local today. A very simple dish suitable for both kids and adult. This is another high protein dish since the main ingredients are beancurd, beansprouts and tempeh which I omitted this time round.

Ingredients

2-3 firm beancurd, cut into quarters
100-250gm beansprouts, roots removed
1 fresh red chilli, thinly sliced (more if you like it spicy)
1 clove garlic
1 medium onion
1 1/2 tbsp silver fish, soaked
250ml low fat coconut milk
salt to taste

Method

1. Blend garlic, onion and silver fish into paste
2. Boil 400ml water in a pot
3. When water starts to boil, add blended paste and stir. Leave to boil
4. Once boils, add coconut milk
5. Once mixture starts to bubble, add beancurd and leave for about 10 mins
6. When gravy starts to bubble, add beansprouts and sliced chilli
7. Add salt to taste and simmer till gravy boils. Do not overboil.
8. Turn heat off and cover the pot for about 10mins before serving
9. Serve hot with steamed rice

Rose Swissroll

It has been quite a while since I last baked and hands were itchy to bake something for the weekend. Inspired by Janny's (from Rainbow Connection) post on the rose patty cakes, I made this rose swissroll instead. With some slight modification to one of the swissroll recipe that I have, it came out pretty well except that I should have baked it in a slight larger pan. Had a bit of struggle trying to roll it because of the thickness. Nevertheless, it was pretty good :)

Ingredients

3 eggs, separated
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup self-raising flour, sifted
1/4 cup corn flour, sifted
2 tbsp hot milk
1 tbsp melted butter
2 tsp rose water
1-2 drops of red colouring

Filling
300ml cream, whipped
2 tbps jam (I omitted this)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree celcius
2. Sift both flours together and put it aside
3. Place egg whites in a clean, dry bowl and beat till stiff peaks form
4. Add sugar slowly and continue beating till thick and glossy
5. Add egg yolks one a time, beating well after each addition followed by colouring
6. Lightly fold in flour with milk till well combined
7. Add melted butter and lightly mix it till no streaks followed by rose water
8. Pour batter into a greased and line swiss roll pan and bake for 8-12 mins or springs back when touched or the sides shrink away from the sides of the tin
9. Leave the cake in the tin for about 5 mins and take it out to cool on a wire rack
10. When cool, place the cake on a clean tea towel and cut the sides away
11. Spread with jam followed by cream
12. Roll the cake holding the sides firmly and leave it wrapped in the tea towel for about 10mins
13. Remove swissroll from the towel and slice it to serve. Otherwise, wrap swissroll with cling wrap and store it in the refrigerator

Ca Kho To (Fish simmered in caramel sauce)

This is a vietnamese dish that is being served in almost all vietnamese restaurant. I did not have a chance to try this dish when I visited the place a few weeks ago but had the opportunity to smell this great tasting dish (my colleague ordered this dish while I was enjoying my shrimp *LOL*) I totally forgot about this dish until a member of KC posted the recipe and I went "wow, this is great !!" =D I just had to try it as it brought back memories of that wonderful aroma.

This dish is usually served in a claypot but you can cook with any thick based pot that you have. My end product looks far from what is being served in those vietnamese restaurant but taste wise is yummy. This is generally a child friendly dish because there is no chillI/peppers, but you can add it if you like. My daughters and myself love this dish.

I used the recipe shared by Thu from KC but modified it slightly. This recipe uses caramel sauce that was prepared earlier but you don't need to do that. The only difference is to make the caramel sauce then add the other other ingredients. You can refer to the caramel sauce method for reference.

Ingredients

3 fish fillet, cut in thirds
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 shallot, chopped
1 tsp fresh ginger, sliced/julliene
1 lemongrass, sliced thinly
3 tbsp water or chicken stock
2 green onions/spring onions, chopped
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp caramel sauce (recipe below)
2 tsp light soya sauce
salt & black pepper
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Method

1. Heat vegetable oil in a clay pot or medium fry pan over moderate heat
2. Add minced garlic and chopped shallot. Stir until fragrant, about 2 to 3 minutes then add lemongrass slices
3. Add catfish pieces and cook until they turn almost white, for about 2 minutes
4. Add caramel sauce, fish sauce and soya sauce and gently stir for 1 more minute, until the fish has slightly caramelized for about 12 to 15 minutes. You can simmer it longer if you want a drier version
5. Remove from the heat and garnish with thinly sliced green onions and ground black pepper
6. Serve hot with steamed rice

Caramel Sauce
1/2 - 1 cup sugar
some boiling water

Preparation for the Caramel Sauce:

1. Warm up a pale coloured pan/pot gently for about 1-2 mins
2. Pour sugar into the warm pan
3. Leave the sugar until it begins to melt (do no stir)
4. Once the sugar starts to melt, you will see the colour slowly changes to brown
5. Twirl the pan to ensure that all the sugar are melted evenly
6. Use a wooden spoon and stir until the sugar is totally melted and resembles dark runny honey 7. Take the pot off the heat and gradually add boiling water and keep stirring (you have to be careful here because there could be some splutter)
8. You may want to return the pot back to a gentle heat to re-melt lumps of caramel that have formed.
9. Once the caramel is smooth, turn off the fire and leave it to cool before keeping in an airtight container and store it in the refrigerator.

Pasta Al-Tonno (Tuna)

It has been a while since I last updated this blog. Finally after regaining back my old self, I made this extremely simple dish for dinner. My hubby has been craving for pasta dish which I haven't been doing lately especially before my work trip :D So I decided to make this one especially for him since I had this when I was in Vietnam. Ok, funny isn't that I had a western dish at Vietnam? Ah well, my colleagues and I usually frequent this eating place that serves western and local dishes. Generally, the place is catered for foreigners, so we usually have our lunch and dinner there.

You can use whatever pasta you like. I used penne because that was what I have in my pantry. I would prefer to have it with spaghetti though.

For this version I cheated using pasta sauce I bought from the supermarket, my all time favourite brand Leggo's. You can make your own sauce too because it is a very simple dish, simpler than bolognaise to me at least. You can also use salmon if you like too or better still, add tuna and salmon :)

Ingredients
200-300gm pasta, boil till al-dente
1 jar Leggo's napolitana sauce (or other sauces that you like)
1 can tuna flakes in oil
handful of basil, chopped
oregano, basil herbs if you like

Method
1. Boil pasta till al-dente, drain the water and put it aside
2. Heat pasta sauce till bubbly and add tuna flakes, stir well and add herbs if you want more flavour
3. Add pasta into the heated sauce and toss till well coated
4. Sprinkle chopped basil and serve immediately

If you want to make sauce from scratch, the ingredients are as follows:

1 clove garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can tomato sauce (in a can, more if you like)
oregano and basil
salt to taste

Fry chopped garlic and onion till soft and add tomato sauce. Add a little bit of water and add herbs and salt to taste.

That is generally it. You can also add chopped tomatoes (preferably from the can) to the sauce for more flavour.