Stir fry udon with Tai O‘s Shrimp Paste 大澳蝦醬炒乌冬面

 

This is another fast and simple lunch meal that you can enjoy within 15 minutes of cooking time.

Sharing below – another rush hour fusion lunch meal of mine,

Stir fry udon with Tai O ‘s Shrimp Paste

The main ingredient used here is cooked dried Shrimp paste I got from Tai O village at Lantau Island ( Tai Yu San 大嶼山) , Hong Kong during an impromptu trip with my two pretty nieces and sister-in-law in August 2014.

We went for an excursion boat ride to Tai O to visit this small fishing village during our day trip to Lantau Island.

We bought a day trip package tour which included a cable car to Lantau Island, a bus trip to Tai O village and a boat trip for dolphin sighting. However, we didn’t have any luck with dolphin.

As we strolled along Tai O village, we noticed only a few streets were packed with stores and tourists.

Fresh seafood could be found easily, many of which were made into dried seafood such as salted fish, shrimp paste, popular souvenirs to tourists.

We bought our shrimp paste from following shop. The shop owner told us that this cooked shrimp paste is very easy to be used. Just merely adding in few tablespoons of the paste into ready cooked plain noodles It would instantly added flavor and no other seasoning needed.

In fact, it is better known in using as seasoning for fried rice in Tai O. Other than rice and noodles, stir-fried water spinach with shrimp paste is another great recommendation.

 

Ingredients:

1 pack of udon ( you can opt for other noodles)

3-4 pcs of fish balls/meat balls/fish cake/prawns

2 pcs nuggets ( optional)

1 egg

 

Seasoning:

2 tablespoons cooked dried shrimp paste (to your taste)
1 tablespoon soya/oyster sauce (to your taste)

1 tsp. chili ( optional)

 

For garnishing:
1 tablespoon of Gim ( Korean seasoned roasted dried seaweeds)

or

1 tablespoon of spring onions

Instructions:

1. In a small pot bring a pot of water to boil. Add in Udon and add in side ingredients. Cook for 2 minutes. Drained and set aside.
2. Heat up a pan with 2 tbsp. of oil, add in cooked Udon stir fry a while before adding an egg and seasoning and continue to stir fry for 2-3 minutes until well mixed.
3. Dish up and garnish with spring onions/dried seaweeds before serve.

大澳蝦醬炒乌冬面

主料：

1份乌冬面或任何您所选择的面条/冬粉等

3-4个鱼丸/肉丸/鱼饼

调味料：

2汤匙大澳蝦醬, (你的口味)

1汤匙酱油/蚝油,(你的口味)
1茶匙辣椒酱的（对于喜欢额外辣的口味）

配菜：
1大匙，青葱的
或
1汤匙韩国调味的烤海藻

方法：
1，把一锅水煮沸乌冬面，加入配料，煮2分钟，沥干待用。
2，热油加入乌冬面翻炒几下,再加入蛋,配料炒香
3。后加入大澳蝦醬调味，翻炒均匀约3分钟。
4，洒上青葱/干海藻即可上碟享用

Pork & Dried shrimps One Pot rice 电饭锅猪肉虾米煲仔饭

 

Simple rice cooker one-pot meal

I bet many of you working moms would love to get your family meals prepared with ease when you have a rush and tight schedule, no? Shared here is an easy and simple one-pot meal perfect for a hassle-free midweek lunch or dinner. To me this recipe is a great option for a lazy weekend instead.

The name “One Pot” which literally means everything is mixed and cooked together in one pot and served as the only dish.

This recipe was adapted from Cantonese one-pot rice dish, originally made use glutinous rice cooked in a clay pot. We simplified the recipe by using normal rice cooker instead.

For the ingredients, we retained the usual Chinese pork sausages, pork slices and dried shrimps. However, you can twist the recipe by adding some greens to it to make it a balanced diet. Chopped long beans or French beans are good options. Carrots and mushrooms are also great choices.

I didn’t have them when I prepared the meal; I substituted with slices of tomatoes and lettuce to go with the rice instead.

 

Our family love to have soup to go with rice. To compliment with this one pot rice, we used to prepare simple miso soup or fish balls soup to serve together.

 

Pork & Dried shrimps One Pot rice Serve 4 Ingredients: 2 cups of Thailand Jasmine Rice   Water ( 1 :1.5 water ratio) (Much depend on the type of rice, some rice may absorb more water, rule of thumb is to use slightly less amount of water as compared normal plain rice. I usually don’t measure in cups; I use my palm as measurement, as long as the water level slightly over my knuckles) Pork belly, cut into small strips Dried shrimp, soak and wash Chinese Pork sausages (lup cheong), steam to cook and sliced thinly   Marinate Pork slices with: Light soy sauce (to your taste) Dark soy sauce (to your taste) You can use roast pork if you have it on hand.   Rice Seasoning: (to your taste) 2 cloves Garlic - peeled, chopped 1 tbsp. Light soy sauce 1 tsp. Dark soy sauce 1 tbsp. Oyster sauce 1 tbsp. Maggi chicken stock essence (optional)   Garnishing: 5 gloves small shallots peeled and cut into thin slices.   Method:       1.    Marinated the pork strips and dried shrimps and set aside for at least half an hour. 2.    Wash, soak (30 minutes) and drain uncooked white rice, add one tbsp. of Maggi chicken stock essence to the rice and set aside. 3.    Heat oil in wok, sauté the slices of shallots into golden brown and set aside. 4.    Leave some oil in the wok and add in dried shrimps and stir fry until it starts to dance before adding pork slices and continue to stir fry for 3- 4 minutes before dish up and set-aside. 5.    Add 1tbsp. oil in wok and sauté the chopped garlic until fragrant before pouring in the rice. 6.    Add in water and seasoning with dark and light soy sauces and oyster sauce; continue to stir-fry to mix for 5 minutes, taste test before dish up. 7.    Transfer the fried rice back to rice cooker and switch on cook button to let it cook in the rice cooker for about 15 minutes. 8.    After 15 minutes, open up the rice cooker cover and you will see the rice is boiling, time to add in the fried pork/shrimps mixtures and pork sausages, stir to mix before closing back the cover and let the rice continue to cook until rice cooker automatically turn to "Keep Warm" mode. 9.    Leave it there for another 5 to 10 minutes before dish up. 10. Garnish with sautéed shallots and serve hot.   电饭锅猪肉虾米煲仔饭 2 杯的泰国香米 （ 四人份） 水（米和水的比例：1：1.5 这个比例很重要，关系到饭的生熟程度!太烂不好吃，夹生则根本没法吃!) 2瓣大蒜 - 去皮，切碎 五花肉切成小条状，腌猪肉片30分钟用适量酱油，黑酱油。 可用烧肉代替。虾米洗净浸泡滤干，洗净的腊肠蒸熟切成薄片。 饭调料： 1汤匙。酱油 ：1茶匙。老抽酱油 ：1汤匙。蚝油，1汤匙。美极鸡精（可选） 摆盘： 5粒小葱头去皮，切成薄片。 用电饭煲做煲仔饭的制作方法步骤如下： 把肉调味（备用） 米洗好（最好用水浸泡30分钟），加入1汤匙。美极鸡精备用 在炒锅烧热油，爆香葱头成金黄色，备用。  在炒锅烧热油，爆香葱头成金黄色，备用。 留少许油,并加入虾米爆香，再把猪肉片倒进去继续翻炒3〜4分钟盛起备用。如果你想加豆角菜类，现在就可以加入，随着猪肉炒拌。  炒锅下油1汤匙，爆香蒜茸再把米倒进去翻炒几下，倒入清水与饭调味料继续翻炒均匀越5分钟口味测试盛起。 转移炒饭回电饭煲让它在电饭煲煮约15分钟。 将锅盖打开看一下，电饭煲里的水沸腾后马上放肉虾米，切好的腊肉搅匀，盖上盖子，继续煮，关跳起后，再焖5-10分钟，撒上炸葱头片即可食用。

Bag Sewing Projects

 

After I started the wristlets projects, I found many free online bag tutorials which were not as difficult to follow as I thought. With so many scrap curtain fabrics that my ex-classmate,Cecelia gave me after she shutdown her curtain fabric shop, I decided to fully utilize them. Instead of making more small wristlet and phone bags, it was time for me to take the challenge of making bigger bags.

2014 Wristlet collections

I am really not a handbag person as I seldom wear handbag to work or even for shopping. Because of this, the likes of branded handbags such as Gucci, Prada, LV etc. were never in my “must have” list. I am ok to settle with any bag as long as it is functional. These online DIY bag patterns are functional and pretty. They are great for own use and also great as gifts to give away.

The following bag collections are the results of the many weekends that I spent since end of last year. Whenever I was not into baking, these sewing projects took place.

Most of these bags were no longer with me, except for the following three bags, which I just couldn’t give them up due to their nice fabric pattern.

Pleated bag by U- handbag

My favorite evening bag, Rosette round handle bag

and this latest collection Diana Hobo bag

The following bags were gifts that I gave away to relatives, friends and colleagues for various functions such as New Year, new born and farewell.

These were diaper bags for my Finance team members. You can get the free diaper bag tutorial from here

New year bag for my second Sister-in-law, Phoebe Bag pattern by Rebeka Lambert.

Farewell gift to my ex-IT staff, round wooden handle tote bag.

The latest hobo bag to my ex-Finance member.

These bags may not be made from fancy expensive material, but every bag made was a limited edition as they never shared the same bag and fabric patterns. For all the bags that I gave away, I hope the new owners would cherish them dearly and whenever they used it, I would be in their thoughts.

Or maybe I should sign off my master pieces by making a small embroidery to be sewed inside as my own brand.

Mrs NgSK’s Butter Cake 牛油蛋糕

 

Butter cake again ? Recipe #3

Following up from my previous post, here I am introducing another great butter cake recipe from a blog which I came across while I was researching on butter cake recipes.

I was glad that my trial turned out successful. The cake tasted really soft and moist as claimed by the blog post. The main difference of this recipe as compared to the last 2 recipes I blogged before was this recipe required the egg whites and yolks to be separated and to beat the white and sugar into stiff egg white. More skill was needed to make this cake as stiff egg white was not easy to make.

 

Crack free butter cake

I baked this cake for my late mother-in-law’s passing anniversary jìrì (忌日) prayer ceremony. Besides this cake, I also made my signature dish roasted pork belly while Auntie Lan made rice dumpling ( Bak Chang). It was a sumptuous lunch for her.

Mrs Ng SK's Butter Cake

The recipe adapted from Wendyinkk's blog. This butter cake recipe originated from one of the church members of Mrs Ng SK.

Ingredients

• 230g Butter ( I used the whole butter 250g)
• 150g Caster Sugar
• 4 eggs ( about 200g), separated into whites and yolks
• 200g sifted self-raising flour
• 60ml milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla essence
• 50g caster sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180 C for at least 15min, line the base of 8” baking pan with parchment paper and grease the sides of the baking pan.
2. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla at medium speed till pale and fluffed up.
3. Add in egg yolks, one at a time making sure it's well mixed before adding the next.
4. Add half of the flour, mix at slow speed. Add in milk, mix then the remaining flour.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites with 50g caster sugar till soft peaks.
6. Scoop ⅓ of the egg white into the batter, and mix it thoroughly, to lighten up the batter.
7. Add in the remaining egg whites and fold it in with a spatula.
8. Pour into the lined baking pan and level.
9. Place in the middle rack of the oven, bake for 45 minutes at 170 C
10. Lower the temperature to 150C at last the 15 minutes if you see the top is too brown, or using a aluminum sheet to cover the top.
11. Using a skewer to check doneness of the cake by poking into the center of the cake, if it's cooked, the skewer comes out clean.

牛油蛋糕

改编自Wendyinkk的博客的配方。这奶油蛋糕配方源自她的教会成员之一。

成份 ：

230克牛油（我用250克） 150克砂糖， 鸡蛋4个（约200克） ，分为蛋 白和蛋黄， 200克过筛自发面粉， 60毫升奶， 1茶匙香草精， 50克砂糖

做法：

1. 烤箱预热至170℃。最好先预热15分钟

2. 将烤箱预热至180℃15分钟， 可减少至170， 烤盘抹油或置油纸。

3. 使用低速将牛油＋细砂糖一起混合搅拌，换到中速打至松发变白。

4. 在糖还没有完全溶解，倒入第一个蛋黄后继续搅拌，每次加蛋奶油完全吸收蛋黄后，再加入蛋黄搅拌至蛋黄搅拌完毕。再加入香草精拌匀。

5. 面粉划分为二分次拌入，鸡蛋奶油里最低速度搅拌混合 最后，加入牛奶拌匀。

6. 在另一个碗，搅拌蛋清和50克细砂糖，搅拌至软峰 即蛋白膏的峰尖挺立不下垂并硬性发泡。舀蛋白膏分为三次拌入面糊中调匀了。

7.把面糊倒入抹油的烤盘。在桌子上轻轻地震动和敲击烤盘面糊均匀分布​​，并让空气排出。

 8.将烤盘放进烘箱中架。烤45分钟或至金黄色。 用牙签/串以测试，串出来干净，它已熟， 从烘箱中取出，让烤盘冷却5分钟后才除去烤盘倒出蛋糕。

注意事项：
如果蛋糕表面过焦，最后15分钟可在面蛋糕覆蓋一張鋁箔紙

Butter Cake 牛油蛋糕

Butter cake recipe # One

For many baking rookies, this seem to be one of the basic cakes to try out with right? I was one of them. However, I soon found out that this cake was not as easy as it may have seemed to be rated by most of the recipes.

When baking butter cake, I bet many of you might experience one or both of the following problems, which to me was really demotivating.

1st – Why my butter cake taste dry?
So far, I had attempted 3 times, with 3 different types of butter and experienced 3 different consistency of moistness.  Apparently, to yield a moist buttery butter cake, the key is very much depending on the type of butter and liquid used in the recipe.

2nd – Why my butter cake crack in the middle? So far, out of the 3 trials, only the recent birthday cake that l made for my son turned out with perfect flat and smooth surface. In my previous two attempts, the cakes cracked miserably in the middle like an earthquake. So, what did I do in my recent trial that made a difference from the previous ones? For this trial, even though I did use a different recipe but I believed the key change was more of using a round cake pan rather than a loaf pan, which I happened to use for my previous 2 butter cakes.

Thanks to Joy of Baking that helped to solve my mystery. In her blog, she pointed out most cakes baked in loaf, bar or ring pans crack slightly due to the confined space. Hence, if smaller cake pan is used, it is much easier for the cake to rise and crack in the center. In addition, oven temperature also plays an important factor - too hot an oven temperature causes the cake to peak faster in the middle and erupt, resulting in cracks.

To avoid too hot an oven, it is best to bake with lower temperature in the beginning ( around 160/170 degree Celsius) and adjust placement of the cake to bottom rack of oven instead of the middle rack to make the top brown slower than the sides.

The following were the loaf butter cakes I made comparing to the one bought in a store. Both had the same crack effect in the center. I baked these 3 loaf of butter cakes in April during Qīngmíng festival (清明節) prayer to pay honour to my late mother and parents-in-law.



Initially, it was disappointing seeing the cracked cakes came out from the oven. However, when my family members especially my father who tasted the cake and praised highly its moistness and buttery taste with positive comments that the cake was tastier than those from the store, I felt so much relieved!

This butter cake recipe is adapted from Agnes Chang's Baking Made Easy, (蓝赛珍，轻轻松松学烘焙） but I added more milk in the recipe to give it more moisture. For this recipe, I used Buttercup brand butter which was not really butter but margarine. I was surprised that the cake turned out to be as moist and buttery as a branded butter.

Last month 14th of July, in celebrating my son’s 10th birthday, I did another attempt by using an expensive branded butter, SCS butter. This time I opted for a different recipe, adapted from Christine’s Recipes Butter Pound Cake. Click the link to access this recipe directly from her famous food blog.


   

I was pleased to see a crack free round butter cake. However, my family felt that the taste of this cake was drier and not as moist as my previous butter cake. I was not sure whether it was due to the change of recipe or the butter that I used. 

Thanks to hubby’s great calligraphy writing skill that transformed this plain looking butter cake into a nice looking birthday cake.




Shared below is the butter cake recipe adapted from Agnes Chang’s Baking Make Easy.

BUTTER CAKE

Source: Agnes Chang’s Baking Make Easy
Ingredients:
250g butter, at room temperature
250g self rising flour
200 -250g castor sugar ( I reduced to 180g)
4 eggs
4 tbsp. fresh milk ( I added 6tbsp.)
1 tsp. vanilla essence  

Methods:

Preheat oven to 180°C for 15 minutes. ( I reduce to 175)

Lightly grease a 22cm round baking tin or line it with grease-proof paper.

Sieve self rising flour and set aside.

Mix butter and sugar using low speed until well combined.

Change to medium speed and beat until light and pale in yellow.

(Note: Sugar has not dissolved yet).

Add in the first egg, beat well after each addition of egg until creamy.

Scrape down the sides for even mixing.

Add in vanilla essence and mix well.

Divide flour into three portions, use lowest speed to mix in flour.

Scrape down sides for even mixing.

Finally, add milk .

Pour the mixture into the greased baking tin.

Shake and tap on table  lightly to distribute cake mixture evenly and to get the air out.

Place the cake at the lower rack in the oven.

Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown and cooked.

If a toothpick/skewer comes out clean, it is done.

Remove it from the oven and leave the cake in the tray to cool on the rack for 5 minutes before removing from tray.

Notes:

If the cake turns brown too quickly, cover it loosely with a piece of aluminum foil towards the last 15 minutes.

 

牛油蛋糕

资料来源：蓝赛珍，轻轻松松学烘焙

 

材料：

牛油２５０克

白砂糖 - 180-200g

全蛋　４个

低筋面粉２５０克（过筛）

发粉　１茶匙　（过筛）

鲜奶　４汤匙

半茶匙盐

1茶匙香草精

做法：

1.     烤箱预热至180℃。最好先预热15分钟

2.     将烤箱预热至180℃15分钟， 可减少至175， 烤盘抹油或置油纸。自发面粉过筛。

3.     使用低速 将牛油＋细砂糖一起混合搅拌，换到中速打至松发变白。

4.     在糖还没有完全溶解，倒入第一个鸡蛋液后继续搅拌，每次加蛋奶油完全吸收蛋液后，再加入蛋液搅拌至蛋液搅拌完毕。再加入香草精拌匀。

5.     面粉划分为三分次拌入，鸡蛋奶油里最低速度搅拌混合 最后，加入牛奶拌匀。

6.     把混合物倒入抹油的烤盘。在桌子上轻轻地震动和敲击烤盘使蛋糕混合物均匀分布​​，并让空气排出。

7.     将烤盘放进烘箱中的下架。烤45分钟或至金黄色。 用牙签/串以测试，串出来干净，它已熟。

8.     从烘箱中取出，让烤盘冷却5分钟后才除去烤盘倒出蛋糕。

注意事项：
如果蛋糕表面过焦，最后15分钟可在面蛋糕覆蓋一張鋁箔紙。