Prawns in bean curd skin surprise and Pai Bao (排包）

Ever wonder how all those restaurant chefs come up with all those creative and delicious dishes? I do, hahaha! I would sometimes think "Woah! How come I didn't think of that? It's really good!" But of course they have their secret, and their skills involved, something that we should not compare with the home cooked version. But believe me...it's the home cooked meals that usually let people think of warm, home and your Mummy (or Daddy)!! So get your wok ready and cook up something special (in your own special way) for your family to enjoy today! For me? I came up with a dish that you might feel that it's pretty similar to a Dim Sum dish (sorry can't remember the name). :) But instead of Dim Sum version...I twisted it and made it savory enough to go with steam rice for dinner! ;)

My family and I are big eaters when we come to tofu and bean curd. Well, it's a family favorite! :) Every week we would consume at least 2 egg tofu, 1 block of plain tofu and perhaps some bean curd skin for vegetarian dishes. It's healthy, inexpensive and so so versatile! :) You might have noticed that most of the past dishes I introduced involved one soy or the other. :) I remember when I was young, my mom would coax us to eat tofu saying that it would make our skin as white and silky as the tofu, hahaha! 

Interested in this dish? And wondering what surprise is it? Here's the recipe:

Ingredients for Prawn in beancurd skin surprise:

6 large prawns, peeled and devained, leaving the tail shell attached

(*rubbed with 1 tsp baking soda and rinsed off well after 10 minutes)

2 small ripe bananas, peeled and cut length wise into 3 pieces each => yeah, no surprise actually!

1 to 2 sheets of bean curd skin (those precooked in freezer vegetarian section, not dried ones)

Marinate:

1 tsp light soy sauce

dash of pepper

1/2 tsp oyster sauce

Method:

• Marinate the prawns with the marinate ingredients and let seat for 30 minutes.
• Cut the bean curd skins so as to have adequate amount to wrap both prawn and banana inside properly. See picture below:
  

• No toothpicks are required for my case, but if you like, please use them to secure the bean curd skin on to the prawns.
• After wrapping, heat up the wok with frying oil at medium heat. Add the prawns in and fry till golden brown and crisp. Dish up and let cool on paper towels. Serve as horderves or with steam rice.

Serve it while it is still hot and crisp. So when you first bite into it, the crispy, savory bean curd skin combined with the soft sweet banana and crunch of the sweet prawns....yummy!

Show you a snap shot of the inside....can see it's still moist on the inside.  I was pretty satisfied with this creation...hopefully I can come up with something more delicious next time. :)

It's been sometime since I last made some bread. So this time, I decided to make Pai Bao . Pai Bao(排包）is probably one of my favorite pick whenever I visit a bakery store. I remembered that was the first thing I asked my husband to buy for me hours after I delivered my 2nd baby girl, hahaha! Craving for it I guess! It is like a sweet bun, but it usually arranged and  baked in vertical rows. This super soft, rich egg bread is a treat to snack on anytime of the day. I have been meaning to find a good recipe and make this bread for awhile now. And since Florence from Do What I Like posted up her recipe...it gave me all the more reason to try it out. ;) Thanks Florence!

I have made 1.5X of the recipe, so here is the portion of the ingredients I came up with. (And still I regret not making more, hahaha) I will not be posting the method since I'm quite familiar with bread kneading steps. But if you like to take a look, please proceed to the original recipe.

Ingredients for Pai Bao Bread:
375g bread flour
75g caster sugar
3/4 tsp salt
7g instant active yeast
2 egg yolks
4 tbsp condense milk
100ml heavy whipping cream 
100ml water (should be milk but I used water by mistake...but still turn out great)

75g pre-fermented dough (pls see original recipe)
50g butter

Sugar syrup (optional)

1 tsp sugar + 1 tbsp warm water

*Simple sugar syrup for brushing the bun top after baking. 

This is such a delicious bread! I can literaly eat it everyday! ;0 Super soft and mildly sweet...eat it plain or with a thin spread of butter, serve up with your favorite warm beverage...such pleasures in life! 

Again tempting you with the picture of this soft bread. You can see the thin "shreds" ....need I say more to convince you? Go...go now, and make this bread today. ;) Have fun making it though!