Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Souffle Part I : Cheese

Hi everyone, back again with me :) ....after a very long time yes? :)

    Lately I've been into baking intensely. I could do almost 2-3 baking process in a week. Always craving for something sweets and delicate. And for this reason I've gain a lot of weight... omo...omo... XP

    Few days ago my friend took me to World Market, she said we can find some Indonesian's stuff over there. She's right ... I found Indonesian's table&chairs, ehmm Bali's accessories (although I'm not really sure they are from Bali, just figure it out from the texture :p), baskets and yes a few more things. WM (the World Market's nick name by me) also provide other stuffs from different nations. One of them is japan. Although its not many, but cute Japanese stuffs really can make my eyes shining... hehehe

  Anyway, I found a cheap ramekin set at WM, $2.99 for 4@3.5 inch.. small but cute. Can't resist the temptation and then all I know was that set already at my shopping bag :p

   Just for you to know, I love Gordon Ramsay. ... and his shows :) .. One of the Master Chef challenge was SOUFFLE.. (forgot which episode was it lol). When I saw the contestants making the looking-good-and-looks-like-so-yummy SOUFFLE cheese, I decided to my self that I have to try to make it someday :) ... and that day is today ;)
Souffle Cheese

   Jang...jang... Hehehehe, never eat a souffle before. I was wondering what is the real souffle taste like :). I use mr.Alton Brown's recipe to make this cheese souffle :) since the review is good. And it is good taste. So cheese-like and delicate I must say. If you really like salty and creamy dish, this cheese souffle is just for you. 

   

  Ingredients : 
  • Butter, room temperature, for greasing the souffle
  • 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
  • 1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) butter
  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 1 teaspoon dry mustard ( I used ground mustard)
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 1/3 cups milk, hot
  • 4 large egg yolks (2 1/2 ounces by weight)
  • 6 ounces sharp Cheddar (I used Kraft 4-cheese ;)
  • 5 egg whites plus 1 tablespoon water (5 1/2 ounces by weight plus 1/2 ounce water)
  • 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions :

  1. Use room temperature butter to grease an 8-inch souffle mold (I used 7@3.5 inch) . Add the grated Parmesan mold to cover the sides. Cover with plastic wrap and place into the freezer for 5 minutes. and roll around the side.
  2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. ( I preheat oven to 350F)
  3. In a small saucepan, heat the butter. Allow all of the water to cook out. 
  4. In a separate bowl combine the flour, dry mustard, garlic powder, and kosher salt. Whisk this mixture into the melted butter. Cook for 2 minutes. 
  5. Whisk in the hot milk and turn the heat to high. Once the mixture reaches a boil, remove from the heat. 
  6. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks to a creamy consistency. Temper the yolks into the milk mixture, constantly whisking. Remove from the heat and add the cheese. Whisk until incorporated. 
  7. In a separate bowl, using a hand mixer, whip the egg whites and cream of tartar until glossy and firm. Add 1/4 of the mixture to the base. Continue to add the whites by thirds, folding very gently. 
  8. Pour the mixture into the souffle. Fill the souffle to 1/2-inch from the top. Place on an aluminum pie pan. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes. (Since I only used 3.5 inch mold, I bake them for only 30 minutes)

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Bakcang

  Bakcang is a dish made from sweet rice and filled with meat, salty egg, mushroom and even seaweed. 
Back when I still in my hometown, I usually bought rather than made it... Because as far as I knew, bakcang is a difficult dish to make :p


  I have mentioned about learning how to make bakcang, have I? My friends are so kind, they teach me how to fold the bamboo leaves, fill the bamboo leaves with the sweet rice, and how to cook them :). Now it was not as hard as I imagine LOL... since I already tried to make them several times :) I guess I'm improving a bit ;)


  The other day before I decided to make bakcang alone, I found some filling recipes for Bakcang. Oh how I am so glad hehe. So I decide to combine several recipes and make my own kind Bakcang :). The filling that my friend made for us was so delicious :). The meat was tender and smooth. But since my husband is not my husband if he didn't ask something new and adventurous... He asked me to add salty duck egg, more mushroom and seaweed. Hahaha and of course.... "..make it more salty please..." Sometimes I just can't understand which level does his salinity.. >.< hehe




  I will post my recipes soon, still don't know why my computer is slowing down right now :) hehehe.... O, I planned to make some more bakcang :) craving for them .....again XD


So here I am... just want to share the recipes hihi...


Ingredients :

  • 5 cup of sweet rice (I prefer long grain), washed twice and soaked in water overnight
  • bamboo leaves, washed three times and soaked in water overnight
  • strings to tight the bakcang
  for the filling :
  • 275 gram pork meat, minced. I used pork butt
  • 30 gram shrimp meat, minced
  • 6 pcs hioko/shitake mushrooms
  • 6 small red onions, finally chopped
  • 4 garlic, finally chopped
  • 2 scallion, finally chopped
  • 1 tsp white pepper
  • 2 tbsp sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
  • 2 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp five spice
  • 2 cm ginger, minced
  • 2 cup chicken/pork stock
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • dried seaweed 
  • 1-2 salty duck egg, sliced to your style
How to :
  1. wash the bamboo leaves once again
  2. in a big pan, boil water and put inside the bamboo leaves (make sure all part of the leaves are inside the pan). Move the temperature to low, and let the bamboo leaves soaked for about 20-25 minutes. Remove from the heat, set aside
  3. drain the sweet rice, add sesame oil and mix them. Set aside
for the filling :
  1. put dried seaweed in a bowl and than pour boiling water inside, set aside 
    1. heat oil in a sauce pan, add inside the red onion, stir until fragrant (don't burnt it)
    2. add inside garlic & ginger, stir for awhile until fragrant then put inside the pork meat, stir until the pink color is gone.
    3. add the shrimp meat and mushrooms and stir 
    4. add salt, pepper, and five spice and kecap manis into the pan and stir them for a while until the fragrance come out.
    5. add the scallion , stir
    6. pour 1 cup of the chicken stock and 1 tsp of soy sauce and stir them. Let the stock seep until its almost gone and then add the rest of the chicken stock
    7. pour 1/2 tsp of the soy sauce and then taste the filling mixture. If its not salty enough, add the rest of the soy sauce
    8. let the stock seep until half. If the meat is not soft enough, add water a little bit.
    9. remove the filling mixture and set aside
    how to fold :
    1. take two bamboo leaves and fold them into triangle shape as I explain in Kwecang and then fill 2 teaspoon of sweet rice into the leaves.
    2. put your pinkie finger inside the sweet rice and make like a well inside.
    3. fill 2 tsp of the meat filling, add the seaweed just a little bit because seaweed has a strong taste. You don't want the seaweed overpowering th meat filling
    4. if you like spicy, you can add 1/2 piece of chili 
    5. add salty duck, and then cover with 1 tsp of meat filling
    6. cover again with 1-2 tsp of sweet rice
    7. fold them closely and tight with the string.
    8. after filling all the bakcang , put them in a pressure cooker, cover with water just until they all soaked. Cook them, for about 1 hour after the sizling sounds started (My pressure cooker can only contain 10-12 bakcang in one way)
    Enjoy :D

    Saturday, April 9, 2011

    Newbie

    Watching people's blog make me thinking how newbie I am... hehe. Trying new background today. Still want to add more gadget or maybe replace the old one's. Really need to learn more about blogging... :D
    Time does fly really fast. Its already near midnight here... Wish tomorrow is still Saturday... tehehe.

    Remember my old post about Kwecang? Today I'm making Bakcang Fillings. Hope tomorrow will be a success Making-Bakcang-Day :) My hubby wants to add addition ingredient into the filling... dried seaweed. I didn't said anything though. He always has a good idea about food. Actually he do cooking better than me :p.. So no complaint or weird comment from my mouth. I just said " Okeee... " :)

    White to Choco on Chocolate Chiffon Cake

        Yesterday I was planning to bake something. But as day become night, somehow I feel not in the right mood to do it. I just kept thinking "later...oh later ... " until bed time came :p
        So this morning, after made a cup of coffee for my husband, I search some recipes and find this nice Chocolate Chiffon Cake recipe on Bisous a Toi (I got confused to pick whether I want to make Pandan or Chocolate hahaha). But got to change several measurement, since this morning I only got 4 eggs (5 eggs actually, but I messed up one :p) so I decide to make a half recipe only :)


    Since I accidentally drop my camera into water, I have to use my web camera to take pictures :( .. not a good quality .. anyone want to borrow their camera to me? ehehehe...


    I didn't expect that this chiffon cake to be success, since I have a bad experience with baking a cake... But the Lord is so good, He gave me this experience :) 


    Ingredient: 
    (a)
    - 4 eggs white
    - 57 grams of caster sugar
    - 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
    (b)
    - 4 eggs yolk
    - 85 grams of caster sugar
    (c)
    - 85 grams of cake flour
    - 29 grams of cocoa powder (I used nestle's)
    - 70 ml evaporated milk
    - 60 ml canola oil
    - 1/2 tsp baking powder
    - 1/4 tsp baking soda


    How to do it :

    • Preheat oven on 320F
    • Whisk eggs yolk and sugar until pale and combined. Set aside.
    • In another bowl, combined cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder. Sifted the flour three times.  Add canola oil, evaporated milk and eggs yolk mixture. Stir well until combined.
    • In another bowl, mix together eggs white and cream of tar-tar. Combine the sugar into three part, one at a time. Mix until soft peak.
    • Add 1/3 part of egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture and fold gently. continue with  another 1/3 part and finally the rest the egg white mixture. 
    • Pour the batter into ungreased  chiffon cake pan (I used 22 cm)
    • Bake for 30-33 minutes
    • Raise the oven temperatures into 347F and bake for another 5-7 minutes.
    • Let the cake rest in the pan inside the oven for abour 3-5 minutes. And than let it rest on a cooking rack upside down (Bottle neck chiffon cake face down)  until cool.

    For the white and chocolate toping, I used 
    Ingridient :

    • 2 ounce white cooking chocolate
    • 1/8 cup of heavy cream
    • 2 ounce semi sweet chocolate 
    • 1 ounce dark chocolate
    • 3/8 cup of heavy cream

    How to do it :

    • In a double boiler, melt the semi sweet and dark chocolate.
    • In another sauce pan, heat the heavy cream.
    • Once the chocolate melted, pour the heavy cream inside it and whisk until combined.
    • Trim the unbalance shape of the cake. And gently pour the melted chocolate on the cake. Let it set on refrigerator for about 20 minutes.
    • Do it the same way with the white chocolate. But instead of pouring the chocolate, I used a fork and just kinda deep the fork and make a swing on top of the chocolate cake.




    Wednesday, April 6, 2011

    Kwecang

    A couple weeks ago my friends and I tried to make Kwecang (or Kicang) together :). There are four of us and it seems all of us hadn't once try to make this dessert before. I like kwecang a lot. Hadn't eat it since I'm married :p ... 
    I thought making kwecang is hard.. and what do you know? It is HARD ... hahaha. 
    It was not hard on the recipe, but rather on how you wrap it. Kwecang is a traditional food, so how to wrap it is also in a traditional way :). I was wondering why my grandmother didn't teach my mother so she can teach me :p
    Kwecang is made from sweet rice or glutinous sweet rice (I haven't try with this one, going to today :)). So basically we just wrap the sweet rice with Bamboo Leaves :) and steam or, with a new way for me, using a Pressure Cooker. I like this new way, way more faster and easier.


    So basically this is Bamboo Leaves (or I call it Daun bambu in my language :)), it came with in a package. 


    When I made the kwecang at my friend's house, she bought bamboo leaves package which the bamboo leaves are cleaner than the one I bought by my self. And that's why I need to wash them several times before I started to use them. 
    The recipes that I write down here, is the one that I read on a book which I borrowed from library. I kinda forget the title, but there also recipes for Bakcang. Bakcang is the same as Kwecang. The differents are that bakcang is filled with some meat and mushrooms, kwecang is filled with nothing. Also kwecang is eaten with white/palm sugar liquid.

    I'll write the recipes soon... so I'll be right back :)


    Finally got a chance to write down the recipe :) But I can't show you the pictures when I made the kwecang, because accidentally I drop my camera down to my full of water basket. Geezz.. luckily my hubby don't get mad ... 


    Ingridient : (as I try a couple days ago)

    • 3 cups of sweet rice
    • 1 tbsp potassium carbonate water ( I used Koon-Chun)
    • Bamboo leaves
    • strings to tie the kwecang
    So this how I make it, 
    1. Wash the sweet rice twice and than put them in a bowl and covered it with water overnight.
    2. Wash the bamboo leaves few times and soak them in a hot water and set aside overnight.
    3. After overnight, drain the sweet rice and put the potassium carbonate water into the sweet rice and mix them together. Set aside for about 15 minutes and then wash it throughly several times.
    4. Wash the bamboo leaves that has been set aside overnight, and then keep them soak in water. (Some recipes said to boil the bamboo leaves, I'll have to try it)
    5. Take one bamboo leaf, and make a kinda triangle shape like in the pictures
    6. Fill the bamboo leaf that has been fold with the sweet rice and cover them in a tight shape like a triangle. (I can't show you right now how to do it, but will soon. )
    7. Tie the bamboo leaf with string. And after you finish filling all the sweet rice into the bamboo leaves, soak them in a pressure cooker with enough water just until they are covered. 
    8. Cook them on a medium heat and count your time one hour after you hear sizling from your pressure cooker.
    So basically you need to put your thumbs like in the pictures on the bamboo leaf. My friends said that I need to put the softer side of the leave up close to my thumbs. The outer hand is the right hand.


    And than with your index finger (right hand) pull in the leaf so the shape will look like an upside down triangle.


    This is the shape of the leaf from behind 

    The shape of the leaf from front side where you can fill the sweet rice into it.




    If you still confused, you might want to check out on youtube some video which shows you how to fold bamboo leaves for bakcang. The different is bakcang used two leaves, kwecang only used one.
    I often ate kwecangs with palm sugar or white sugar liquid, but when I learn how to make them at my friends house the other day, she told me that kwecang can also be eaten with maple syrup. I was surprised, the taste of the maple syrup (she used kirkland from costco) and the liquid sugar I used to eat was the same. Gotta have hers :)


    Thanks to my friends for teaching me how to make kwecang... all credits to you girls :)