Cooking lesson with Master Chef Tan

As part of cousin Adeline's 16th birthday celebrations, a cooking lesson with our master chef in the family, Uncle Tan was arranged. I believe all should realise now that this family's lives all revolve around food!

Uncle Tan makes one of the best mein fun kuey or pan mee. Essentially homemade wheat flour noodles in a rich anchovy broth. Instead of using the pasta maker to make noodles as is more commonly done in the shops, one tears thin strips of the dough by hand and drops them into the broth. Essential condiments are the deep fried anchovies, potato leaves and crispy fried onions. Optional condiments are fishballs, meatballs, pre-cooked boneless chicken pieces, clams, prawns etc.

Instructions for making the dough:
Put 1 tsp of salt, 3 tbsp of olive oil, 2 cups of water, 2 tbsp of cornflour and a packet of wheatflour into a deep dish.



Handknead until smooth and all the floury paste no longer sticks to your palms, adding water gradually. This is the tricky part because there is no exact measurement - it's all by the feel of the dough.
The broth is made with dried anchovies and chicken bones. The optional condiments listed above may be added before the dough is added to make the broth sweeter. The dough is torn and stretched as thin as possible. Too thick and it's not nice. Next add the potato leaves.

Once the broth boils up again and cooked for a few minutes, it's done.

To serve, fill up a bowl with a mixture of everything in the pot and add the fried anchovies and the deep fried onions. Another important item is the sambal belachan, a spicy chilli and fermented prawn paste combo that completes this dish. I will need to learn that recipe from my Auntie Mag next time.
Of course, since we are greedy, we also had other dishes along with the pan mee. From the front, chicken curry (with no coconut milk because some in the family can no longer have such luxuries in their diet), yong tau fu and beef rendang.


YUM!

Recipe: Mushroom soup & garlic bread

Shen, here you go... Our mushroom soup recipe... Foolproof, easy and always a hit with everyone at our family dinners/parties.

Ingredients:

400g mushrooms
60g butter
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 cup plain flour
4 cups chicken stock
1 cup cream
Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:

Chop up the mushrooms into equal sizes. (You can mix a variety of mushrooms like portobello, shitake, button, oyster. Different combinations give slightly different tastes so it's fun experimenting.)

Heat the butter in a large pan, add the garlic and mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms are soft (about 5 mins).

Add the flour and stir for a minute. Stir in stock and simmer, covered for 10 mins.

Turn off the heat and blend the soup until smooth with a metal handheld blender. (Or let the soup cool a little and blend it in batches in a normal blender.) I usually prefer my soup slightly chunky so I try not to overblend.

Turn the heat back on and add the cream, stir over low heat until the soup is heated through. Add pepper and salt and serve.

* If you are making this ahead of time, don't reheat and add the cream, salt and pepper in first. You can leave the pot alone and do the reheating and adding of cream just before serving.

I also like to add a dash of truffle oil at the end sometimes.

Goes well with our family garlic bread. I'll need to try to make proper measurements for the garlic spread cos I always just throw everything in a bowl and hope for the best. But here's the gist of it:

Garlic spread recipe:

I use Neosoft margarine for this as it's really smooth and easily spreadable. I put the whole tub of it in a bowl and add finely diced garlic, thinly shredded cheese, chopped herbs and black pepper.

We discovered that by frying the garlic beforehand until crisp does wonders. Although remember to let the fried garlic cool before adding it in to the margarine.

You pretty much can use any cheese, all up to your preference really. However, I once used Emmental and my dad didn't like it. You can also use more or less cheese, as you wish. More cheese = cheesy garlic bread!

Any herb can be used or you can just omit this. If I happen to have herbs in the house, then I use them. Chives to parsley to whatever tickles your fancy... All in the name of experimenting!

Spread the mix generously on thinly sliced baguettes and bake in the oven (heated at 180'C) for about 5-8 mins until golden brown. Best served immediately.

Recipe: Baked cheesecake

We were at the Village Grocer last night and I suddenly decided I wanted to make cheesecake.
Came back home straight away after buying the ingredients and started on it.

Ingredients:
125g digestive biscuits crumbs
5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
450g ricotta cheese
450g cream cheese, melted
2 tsp vanilla essence
175g sugar, sieved
3 eggs,
150g fresh blueberries (optional)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 160'C. Place 12 paper baking cases in a muffin tin.

Put digestive biscuit crumbs into a bowl and stir in the butter. Spoon tablespoons of the crumb mixture into the cases, pressing firmly into the bottom. Chill to set.

Beat the ricotta until smooth. Add the cream cheese, vanilla and icing sugar, blending until smooth. Slowly add the eggs, blending well. Spoon the mixture into the cases.

Bake for 25 mins. Remove from oven and cool for 5 mins before removing the cupcakes to cook on a rack. Chill for a couple of hours or overnight. Serve topped with blueberries.

Store covered for up to 2 days in the fridge.

Pet's Comments:
I made the mistake of not allowing the cream cheese to soften a bit more before adding it to the ricotta. Perhaps it would be better to lightly beat the cream cheese separately before adding it in. The mixture came out rather lumpy but after baking and chilling, it seems to have turned out alright..

We managed to get 21 cupcakes out of this. This may be because our cupcake cases were smaller?

Also, the top didnt look nice and smooth, which is perhaps why the recipe calls for blueberries to be added on top.

But it tasted great!!




The recipe comes from my favourite cupcake book - 500 Cupcakes & Muffins by Fergal Connolly. Almost every cupcake recipe I've tried in this book works... which to me, indicates a good cookbook.

Recipe: Summer fruit pie

Here you go, Shen... The recipe for my fruit pie..

Dice 2 apples and a punnet of strawberries.
Mix in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of honey (although the original recipe called for sugar).
Spoon small amounts onto a puff pastry square and place another square on top. Flatten the edges to seal.
Bake in a 200'C oven for 20 mins.
Best eaten warm and maybe with a scoop of ice cream.

Note: I used frozen puff pastry which was already cut into squares and all you needed to do was lay them out one by one and leave to thaw for 8-10 minutes. So easy!

Recipe: Super easy cottage pie

It's Sunday evening. You're dreading work tmrw and want to have a stress free night in preparation for the week. And then you have to cook dinner...

That was pretty much how this evening went for me. And since I felt like eating ragu sauce, just thought it'll be great to make cottage pie today.

I apologise though because I didn't exactly measure the ingredients.. Just threw everything in and hoped for the best!

First, dice one large onion, a few cloves of garlic, 2 carrots and 2-3 stalks of celery.
Also, preheat a fan oven to 220'C.
Heat olive oil in a large pan - medium heat, throw in the onion and garlic and let them sweat for 5 mins.
Then, add in the carrots and celery and cook for another 5 mins, stirring occasionally.
Next, add in minced beef (or lamb) and stir until the meat is browned. (I have not noted how much meat to add in because I'd bought too little of the meat. But what turned out was a more veggie-based and healthier meal.)
Then, stir in a large jar of pasta sauce, some bay leaves, oregano (or just use one of those mixed herb combos for convenience).
Let the sauce cook for about 5 mins if you like your veggies with a bit of a crunch, longer if you want them softer. The recipes I've looked at had the sauce simmering from a range of 20mins to 1hr. There must be a reason for this but I like my veg to still contain its nutrients rather than an unnutrious blob of mush..
Pour the sauce into an oven-proof pan.
Next, peel some potatoes and grate them. Sprinkle salt over it to prevent from browning and stir in melted butter and pepper for taste. Immediately spread this over the sauce and smooth the top. Add a dash of olive oil on the top, if you like. The recipe I followed said to use an oil spray but I didn't have one at hand so I just drizzled the oil.
Bake in the oven for about 20mins until the top is crisp and brown and the sides are bubbling.

My mistake with this was to grated the potatoes early on. The salt extracts the moisture from the potatoes, making it a soggy, discoloured mush. Even after baking it, the colour still looked a little off. But, Rommel said it tasted good and gave it a thumbs-up!

Now all I need to do is tweak the grated potato topping.

*Hint 1: You can use mashed potatoes of course but this is more work... boiling the potatoes, peeling them, mashing etc.. If you're in a rush, this is quick and easy-peasy.
*Hint 2: The ragu sauce is pretty much a base for loads of dishes. You can eat it with a variety of carbs - pasta, rice, pita bread. I'd initially wanted to pair with my wild grain organic rice I'd bought a few weeks back but changed my mind in the end.
*Hint 3: If cooking for 1-2 ppl, you can make the sauce in a large batch and freeze/refridgerate half of the sauce to use another day.

Recipe: Blueberry muffins

Here you go, Shen... Here's the blueberry muffin recipe you asked for. Oh guess what! I think I've found Bisquick in Bangsar Village. But I didn't buy it though. Next time..

Btw, I'm feeling irritable. And annoyed. It could be due to the headache I've been having since this morning. Or multiple sneezing fits I've been getting into. Or the scratchy cough that also sends me into wheezing fits.

Yup I'm sick. But will try to sleep it off and make it to the office tmrw. We'll see how I feel when I wake up. I blame my colleague Gerald cos he got sick first! :p

Blueberry muffins:

Ingredients:
125g caster sugar (although I reduce this to 100g if making for my dad since he doesn't like it too sweet)
1 tbsp grated lemon zest
265g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 lightly beaten eggs
225ml milk (I either use half milk, half water or just substitute the milk with water because I find the muffins are too dense if milk is used. This is also based on feedback from my tasters - the colleagues.)
115g unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla essence
225g fresh or thawed frozen blueberries (can be replaced with blackberries, raspberries or quartered strawberries)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 200'C.

In one bowl, stir the sugar, lemon zest, flour and baking powder with a spoon.

In a larger mixing bowl, beat the eggs, milk, butter and vanilla with an electric whisk until smooth. (Now, I never used a mixer simply cos I dont have a proper one. It's a great way to destress though so I don't mind. It's good to be slightly ambidextrous too so I can use my right hand when the left gets tired.)

Add the dry ingredients and stir until the blueberries are just combined. Spoon the batter into 12 muffin cases or into a greased muffin tin.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove tin from oven and cool for 5 minutes. (Lesson: I once left the muffins in the tin for about 10 minutes which was a mistake because they ended up being too soggy. I'd advice to remove the muffins as soon as the temperature cools a little.)