Stuffed Golden Purses，金钱袋 (Braised Stuffed Tofu)

Happy Dragon Year Everyone! Hope everyone had a wonderful break and ny celebration during the past week. \(^o^)/ Although this year was kind of rush due to the short "intermission" from Christmas, but I still manage to have a nice reunion with my love ones. Plus my long break from blogging too, about 2 weeks to be exact. I bet some of my readers might have already given up hope on me, lol! Apologies! However, truth be told, it will probably be lesser posts from me from now on as I feel the need to spend more time with my kiddos. But no worries, I will still be posting, just less. ;P

Before the Lunar New Year is over, I want to post up a savory dish that I made awhile back. And I believe this dish is a presentable one to serve during new year. Its actually Stuffed Braised Tofu but I changed its name to Stuffed Golden Purses (金钱袋), to make it sound more festive, lol!

I bet many of you out there know what Yong Dao Fu (酿豆腐 ) is. This stuffed tofu is pretty similar to that, just that instead of stuffing it with the usual fish paste, I used minced pork and loads of other ingredients. My family loves any kind of tofu dishes, so this was a good one to serve up to them. If you too love tofu dishes, read on!

Ingredients for Stuffed Golden Purses (Braised stuffed tofu, makes 6)

3 squares of Dao Gua (pressed tofu)

Filling:

250g fresh ground pork (can be replaced with any meat of your choice)

100g fresh prawns, peeled, devined and dice small

3 dried mushrooms, soaked till soft and diced small

1 tbsp minced ginger

2 tbsp diced green onion

Marinate:

salt & pepper

2 tsp light soy sauce

1/2 tsp caster sugar

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp cornflour

Seasoning:

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp sugar

1/2 cup of water with 1 tsp cornflour mixed in)

Method:

• For the pressed tofu, take one and cut diagonally into 2 triangles, repeat for the other two tofu. The using a spoon, scoop out the a cavity in the cut surface, about 1 tbsp worth, see picture. (Those scooped out tofu can be added into the filling if desired.)

• In a mixing bowl, add in all the ingredients for the filling and marinate. Mix well and let sit for at least an hour in the fridge before use.

• After an hour, fill the tofu cavity with the filling and try to stuff it full so it will look nice and packed. (Just like what you wish your wallets to be, lol!) See Pic 1.

• Pat the stuffed tofu some cornflour and heat up a frying pan with about 1 cup of cooking oil. See pic 2 and 3 above.
• Pan fry the tofu till golden brown, dish up and drain on paper towels. See pic 4 above.
• Pour away the oil the pan and lower the heat to small. In a small bowl, mix all the ingredients in seasoning and pour into the pan and let it simmer till it thickens a little. Add in the stuffed tofu and let it coat with the seasoning sauce. After 2 to 3 minutes, dish up and sprinkle some fresh chopped green onions over as garnish if desired.

This is a nice homey dish that you can serve up any time. You can even add in some chopped water chestnut into the filling to enhance the texture too! Do try it when you get the chance. ;)

I am happy to submit this Stuffed Golden Purses (Braised Stuffed Tofu) to Aspiring Bakers #15: Auspicious Dishes for CNY (January 2012) which is hosted by Wen's Delight.

Okay folks, gonna end my post for now and be back REAL soon. Have a good evening!

Coke Cola Chicken Wings and Purple Sweet Potato Huat Goh

It took me a good few minutes to know how to start off this post. It's almost alien to me on writing up a post lately since I've been neglecting it for quite sometime now. Apologies to all my readers as I have been so tight up with the Chinese New Year baking that I don't even have any other free time. But I am so glad I completed my bake order and got some "spare change" for my NY shopping, heehee. (^_^) Anyway, I baked so many NY cookies this year, I'm not quite in the mood to post one now, lol! So for a change, a simple dinner dish, "Coke Cola Chicken" and a Purple Sweet Potato Huat Goh. :)

I have actually cook this Coke Cola chicken wings countless times now. But however because I wasn't very successful in capturing good pictures with it, I kind of deferred the post. I'm not sure if other bloggers are having this same experience, but I realize that those food in brown to dark colors just aren't as "photogenic". :P However today I kind of given up hope and left the photos as is...hopefully it still look yummy. :P

I'm not a Coke drinker, but lately I have been stocking up a few cans of coke in my house just to cook this dish. It is one of the easiest and most yummy chicken dishes I've come across....finger licking good!

Ingredients for Coke Cola Chicken wings (serve 3-4 people)

6-8 chicken wings, trim the fat and cut at mid joint

Seasoning for chicken : 1/2 salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp sesame oil and 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine

4 slices of ginger

2 minced garlic

1 large onion, peeled and slice into thin strips

3 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 can of 330ml coke (I tried with Pepsi and it's equally good)

• Marinate the chicken wings with the seasoning and let seat for at least 2-3 hours before use.
• In a pot, heat up 1 tbsp of cooking oil. Add the minced garlic, sliced ginger and saute till fragrant. Then add in the chicken wings and cook till opaque in color.
• Add in 1/2 cup of water and let boil. Then pour in the coke and let boil. Once it starts to boil, lower heat to simmer.

• Cook till the liquid is reduce into a thick sauce, about 40 to 45minutes. Serve hot with steam rice.

If you are like me, always looking out for easy, delicious dishes to serve up your family, you should definitely give this one a go. It's really easy, really delicious and I guarantee that you will cook this over and over again! Try it!

The other item I'm posting up today is Purple Sweet Potato Huat Goh. It was actually inspired by Lena whom just posted hers a few days ago, heehee! Thanks Lena! Her's was definitely a much cheerful with bright golden color. But since I used purple sweet potatoes...it wasn't as fantastic as I hoped it will be. :P

Err...see what I mean? Not so festive if you know what I mean. I had to tie that nice red bow to make it more NY like, lol! But taste wise, it's really good! I did reduce the sugar slightly and doubled the recipe since I'm making for my mum too. I'm posting the recipe for easier reference in future:

Ingredients for Sweet Potato Huat Goh: (makes about 2 X 6 inches round pan)

250g purple sweet potato, peeled and steamed

2 large eggs

200g caster sugar
250ml milk
60ml vegetable oil
350g cake flour
50g rice flour
1 tbsp baking powder

• In a blender, blend the sweet potatoes, eggs, sugar, milk and oil together till smooth and uniform in color.
• In a large mixing bowl, sift in the cake flour, rice flour and baking powder in. Pour in the sweet potato mixture and stir in till well combined.
• Prepare the steamer and keep it at a boil. Prepare the two 6" round pan (mine is 3" deep) lined with waterproof baking paper.
• Pour the batter equally into the 2 prepared pan and let steam in the steamer for 30 to 40 minutes till tester comes out clean.

I love it, it was not dense at all, soft and fragrant and just the right sweetness for me. Even my mum whom is also a Huat Goh "expert", also said it's pretty good, haha!;) The mild sweet potatoes taste was nice, but I bet with pumpkin will yield a even better huat goh. If you want a get a huat goh for the CNY, forget it, just steam up one yourself! This recipe is really easy, I'm sure you can get it done in no time. ;)

Okay folks, gonna end here today. In any case I can't post up before the new year arrives, Happy Lunar New Year to All! Huat Ah!

Egg white & Cream Bread Loaf (蛋白醇奶土司)

Happy 2012 everyone! Hope my wishes are not too late! :P It's only been a week since we entered into this new year and I'm already been crazy busy since then! What have I been up to? It should be no surprise as this year's Lunar New Year is just a couple weeks away, so I've been busy with Chinese New Year cookies, that's why! :P Orders came in and I just took them, not even sure I can finish baking them in time or even consider is it really worth the time?! :P So wish me luck my friends...these 2 weeks' gonna be real hectic for me.

Just didn't want to leave my blog "hanging" there for too long, I decided to take some time off to post up something I baked yesterday. It's Egg White and Cream Bread Loaf (蛋白醇奶土司). You may find this name a little unusual or even think there's some egg white cream topping on the bread. No no no, it's just that this loaf used these 2 main ingredients which made it all so good. :) See for yourself:

The main reason why I have opted to bake this bread was the usage of egg white. :) As you all know that there are usually so much left over egg whites after all them NY cookie baking, so this recipe is just of those good ways to use the whites! Plus this loaf is not only soft and has excellent texture, it has a nice creamy milky aroma to it, good to be eaten on it's on. :9

Recipe Source : 妃娟與大、小拉拉的網路日誌

Ingredients for Egg white & Cream Bread Loaf (fills a 9X5X5" loaf pan)

Set A:

300g bread flour

22g egg white

7.5g instant active yeast

90g fresh milk

120ml dairy heavy cream

Set B:

All of the above pre-dough

20g egg white

36g caster sugar

3.6g salt

1g instant active yeast

• Combine everything in Set A and knead till everything is well combined and the dough slightly smooth. It is not required to knead till elastic stage. Cover and let dough proof for 2.5hrs in a warm place.
• Punch out the air from the pre-fermented dough and combine everything in Set B to it. Knead well till it reaches elastic and window panel stage. It took me about 20 to 25 minutes on my KA mixer at medium speed with 2 times of 2 minutes break in between.
• Cover and let rest for 30 minutes. Divide the dough and roll round as desired. Place in the greased loaf pan to rise till 90% full. Preheat the oven to 175C with fan.
• Glaze the top of loaf with egg wash or milk and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Cover the loaf with aluminum foil if the top browns too quickly. Once done, remove from oven and remove from pan immediately, cool on rack completely before slicing.

This recipe differs from other usual bread by not using butter at all. However it's use of heavy cream still gives the necessary "fat" it needs to give the delicious texture and taste. Think I will be baking this recipe while since there's so much egg whites left over. :P

A shot of the interior. With a sledder of cold butter and it's a good enough breakfast for me! :9

I made some tuna buns for my parents too, it's their favorite. ;) This recipe is pretty versatile, good as a loaf and good with filling too. :) Do try it out. One thing to note is that I found the proofing time takes longer then normal, perhaps it's the small amount of yeast added. But again, who needs to eat so much yeast!

Okay all, have a great weekend! Cheers!