Trying My Hands At Making Souffles ;)

Trying out new recipes can be quite challenging at times. I was surfing and looking around for some new things to bake for the weekend and I came across this beautiful Passionfruit Souffles from a food blog. I felt irresistibly drawn to it. Haha…knowing this crazy baking passion of mine and always wanting to try new things, this will definitely not escape me!!

But the smart me went and changed the ingredient from Passionfruit Puree to Mango Puree and named it Mango Souffles….this spelt disaster and the first try, all went to the dustbin ;0

The mango souffles were slightly burnt on top and the inside was either over baked or underbaked or the temperature was not right or the eggs were not big enough.

Haha….sounded lame right? Well, I gave it another try this afternoon, coz the inner soul is not happy with the result , this time it came out better than the first time. I did a half portion recipe … incase all have to be executed and buried under the pile of rubbish in the bin. Surprisingly all went into my stomach :) The texture was slightly better . I guess I have to do a few times more before it will come out nice.

The icing sugar topping looks like snow avalanche … ^_____+

Gently fold in the meringue to the egg yolk and mango puree mixture

Scoop into 4ozs ramekins to the rim

Bake at moderately hot for 15mins - 20 mins

Sprinkle icing sugar on the top of the souffles for decoration purposes

This need skill.....mine looks like snow avalanche ;)

¼ cup Fruit Puree + 4 egg yolks + Meringue(4 egg whites + 1/4 cup caster sugar = Souffles!

So easy......yet mine came out not satisfactory....need skill for this

** head shaking ** Guess, I have to practice more (",)



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4th Baking Lesson

I had my fourth lesson at baking last Saturday and I still enjoyed every minute of it. And each time I am there, these thoughts will breeze through my mind “ Will I be able to remember every steps she demonstrated or can I bake as well as the ‘sifu’ ??? Or at least 80% as good as her…. And I tell myself… “ I can do it, if I come home and practice it ”

She taught us 1) Philippine Moist Chocolate Cake
2) Boiled Fruit Cake with Prunes
3) Chicken & Crab Mornay In Pastry Parcel

And we get to take home, a piece each (“,)

***The recipe for a successful pastry is a cup of patience

added with a pinch of courage and a dash of ingenuity. **

it looked like a parcel alrite and it tasted good...YUMMZ

Students' handiwork (",)

I took home a piece of my handiwork :)))

Boiled Fruit Cake....fantastic

this cake was made 7 days before by 'sifu' .

The one that was demonstrated took 3.5 hrs to bake so

she had to bake one in advance for us to take home :)))

Philippine Moist Chocolate Cake.....very rich and chocolatey

Good for chocoholics....:)

I have yet to master it...haha

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Dim Sum - * Pointing to the Heart **

“ While happiness doesn’t come on a plate, dim sum does ”

Dim Sum means “ dotted heart " or “ pointing to your heart " in chinese. But lately people prefer to call it Tim Sum meaning “ touched the heart ” Dim Sum is labelled as ''bad for the heart'' due to ''hidden fat'', but we Chinese still enjoy it. Eat first as the saying goes and deal with it later…. * wink* * wink* Well , it goes well with a cuppa of green tea though.

Dim sum conjures tiny morsels of Chinese tea snacks in bamboo baskets that are popularly eaten at breakfast or lunch. The most popular ones are Steamed Sui Mai, Steamed Har Gao ( prawns dumpling), Radish Cake, Chee Cheong Fun , Char Siew pau, Egg Tarts , Wu Kok or aka Taro Puff and not to forget the famous glutinous rice aka Lor Mai Kai. There are many types of dumplings which are so daintily made and attractive especially the cyrstal clear dough skin prawn dumplings. Nowadays, they have come out with lotz of different dainty looking dim sum snacks.

Piggies love to eat dim sum. Eating dim sum is heavenly . Making it is tedious , therefore I tell you do not grumble about the cost of dim sum …it is worth paying for. We indulge not often coz Daddy complains it is expensive …he rather eat something more filling even if it is expensive ..haha… ( but he doesn’t understand that it is pricey coz of the amount of work involved ) .

I hope to learn from my sifu " Hongkong Dim Sum" one day ....just the thought of it is enough to excite me and set my adrenalin working overtime (",) To think of it , Momsie is a glutton and hungers for skill in baking ,cooking and now thinking of making dim sum...keeke..eek. I always believe in one principal...one is never too old to learn anything , for acquisiton of knowledge is timeless and ageless.

Ming Court @ Ipoh

For 4 person this is ...gluttony (",)

Spring Roll....with century egg...yummz

Fried Fish Balls...Piggy boy's fav

Fish paste wrapped with beancurd skin....very nice
The taste is fantastic

Shrimp dumplings...haha.. forgotten the name(",)

Lo Mai Kai - glutinous rice

I love their paus ...not sweet

Mushroom & shrimps mai

Shrimps Mai...I guess (",)

Shrimps spring roll ... Piggies' fav

double portions here

Har mai...i think

Squid fritters....not so nice

Fish paste balls... *yee wat

Prawns & Meat Rolls

'Chi Ma Wu.' .. made of black sesame seeds

chinese tea compliment dim sum well

this is " char wor " I hope I got it rite (",)

Rating: 4 stars - taste wise

Ming Court
36 Jalan Leong Sin Nam,30300 Ipoh

Phone Number : 05-255-7134


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**Pardon the names of the dim sum in the captions above ,

It may not be accurate for

Momsie knows how to eat and not

remember the name of each snack (",)

P/s This treat was given to Piggy gal who did well in all sem exams.

Congrats ...Piggygal. Hope you enjoyed every morsels of the dim sum.

An Appetizing Delicacy - ' Cincalok ' Sauce

Wow…it’s been quite a while since I last ate this appetizing delicacy . ‘ Cincalok ‘ is specially prepared from traditional recipe and originated from Malacca. The shrimps are soaked in salt water for a period of time. It is sold in bottles of 250 gm . I love the smell of the preserved shrimps….haha only Piggy gal and Momsie love this appetizing delicacy. The guys won’t touch it at all…..* sighz** What a waste ! That’s the reason why I seldom served it for dinner. But today, Piggy gal and Momsie yearned for it…….it added oomph to our food .

It compliments well with fried/ BBQ fish and meat. I can eat 2 bowls of rice if I have this for dinner ….it whets your appetite . Besides this, you can use it to fry slices of lean pork ….a dish I will die for. Will share the recipe of this dish ( Cincalok Fried Pork ) at a later date.

Ingredients used for this appetizing delicacy.........

3 tbsp ' cincaluk '

8 shallots - thinly sliced

7 birdeye chillies - sliced

2-3 limes - squeeze juice

Method:

Mixed all the ingredients together and chilled it before serving

This appetizing delicacy can be eaten with plain rice

or as a sauce eaten with BBQ seafood or meat

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Multi-Grain Butter Cake

Ooops..... I read wrongly, the recipe for this Multi-Grain Butter Cake !!! Instead of using A egg I used double As. Gosh, luckily it turned out nice but not as light as it should be. And it got burned on the top :( . After learning from the baking class I attended a few weeks ago, this was the first time I tried this out and how careless I was in using eggs of wrong grades. (",) Haha, age is catching up ..I guess :)

surprisingly the texture of the cake was okay

despite using the wrong grade of eggs (",)

YUM,YUM,YUM and YUMMY...will try making this again
till this crazy passion of mine dies off ^ ^
Nay, I don't think it will die off until I die off first....* wink **

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Steamboat Party

It is best to have steamboat when the weather is cold , especially during rainy season. I like having steamboat for family gatherings becoz it is the only time when we can talk and eat at the same time. While waiting for the food to cook , family members can chat and have a wonderful fellowship together. Though lots of work is involved in the preparations..especially if you are having the traditional pot using charcoal , I prefer having steamboat at home. It is more fun to have it at home than having it at the restaurant.

The raw ingredients for the steamboat( fish balls, meat balls, cuttlefish, beef slices, chicken slices, prawns, crabs , and a variety of vegetables ) must be fresh and the chilli sauce to go with it must be good. As for me , the fried garlic oil is a must. It goes well with the vegetables.

Last Sunday, we had steamboat for dinner. We had both the traditional charcoal pot and the electric one....* tom yam soup in one pot and ' yok chok chicken soup' in the other * :) There were seven of us and we had a jolly good time. My 'piggies' will be going back to college this coming Sunday * sobz, sobz ** am going to miss them terribly! haha...if I know them, they will come running back every Friday nite after their last lesson :)

the traditional charcoal pot

I used the hot plate for the ' tom yam ' soup... :)
it heats up faster than the charcoal ones

The fried garlic oil and chilli sauce is important in steamboat

:) )) everyone waiting patiently and hungrily .......

fried garlic oil

Beef balls

loved this fried turnip delicacy, crispy and yummZ

beef slices marinated with cooking wine

cuttlefish

stuffed green chillies and lady fingers and sotong balls....

fresh lettuces...goes well with the garlic oil...yummilicious

enoki....piggies favourites

fresh oyster mushrooms

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