Yong Tau Foo 酿豆腐

I didn't know making Yong Tau Foo nowadays is so convenient. I am not talking about instant fish pastes. Those are just too generic, not fresh and not flavourful enough. My mom went to the wet market this morning and she brought a little plastic of Spanish mackerel (tenggiri) back. Apparently the seller has fillet and deboned it for her already! All that was needed was to chop it up, add flavours and give those lovely mackerel a good slap (literally speaking la). The process was made even easier with a ready food processor. Just add everything into the machine and let the machine do all the labourous work. Within minutes, what used to be fish chunks turned into into fine flavourful sticky paste.

Christmas Surprise Cake 圣诞惊喜蛋糕

My first attempt at a Christmas surprise cake. Boy, what was I thinking? The number of steps needed was enough to make Santa proud of me. I felt like I was in a Masterchef competition! But all being said, the cake turned out fine and I do believe I would get better and faster with subsequent cakes. And it is also possible to make two of these at one go, thus saving work.

Christmas Shortbread Cookie Recipes: Nonpareils Shortbread Bites/Almond Snowballs

Now that we know the recipe for easy shortbread cookies, things are only going to get easier. Using the same recipe, I managed to dish out two different variations with a Christmas theme. This first one was easy. Just invest in some rainbow nonpareils and add it to your shortbread dough and make it into bite-size cookies. The nonpareils add colours and excitement to this cookie. It is colourful, it is festive, it is Christmassy. Surprisingly, it also add a beautiful seedy crunch to the otherwise soft cookies. These nonpareils shortbread bites are children magnet. The kids just adore the colours. Very suitable for parties or gatherings with children.

Christmas Shortbread Cookie Recipes: Nonpareils Shortbread Bites

Makes approx. 48 bites

Ingredients 

1 portion shortbread dough (recipe here)
3 tbsp rainbow nonpareils (or red, green and white only)


Mix dough with nonpareils. Pinch a bit of dough to be shaped into little balls. Alternatively, you could also bake like you would a shortbread and then cut it into cubes. Bake at a preheated oven at 160C for 15-20 minutes or until the sides are slightly browned. Remove and cool completely before storing.

Christmas Shortbread Cookie Recipes: Almond Snowballs

These almond snowballs taste like snowballs. It melts...so pleasantly in the mouth. The almond nibs add crunch and additional flavour to these melt-in-your-mouth cookies. I thought these cookies would be too sweet for my palate since they are rolled in so much icing sugar. It was however beautifully balanced off by the additional almond. A sweet cookie it is but in an acceptable way. Perfect for those who has a sweet tooth.

Makes approx. 50 balls

Ingredients 

1 portion shortbread dough (recipe here)
60 g almond flakes/nibs, toasted
3/4 cup of icing sugar

Mix almond flakes into shortbread dough. Pinch a little dough and form into a little ball. Repeat until all are done. Bake at a preheated oven at 160C for 15-20 minutes or until the sides are slightly browned. Remove to cool. Roll balls in icing sugar while still slightly warm. Roll again when serving or when completely cool.

Easy Shortbread Cookies 英式奶油酥

It is that time of the year again. Christmas and New Year is just approximately one and a half months away. Time flies and it flies pretty quickly, doesn't it? If you are making your own edible gifts, you ought to get busy already. Today we will kick off the festive season with an easy bake - Easy Shortbread Cookies. This traditional Scottish cookie is so simple to make yet the taste is utterly delish. I would strongly suggest shortbread cookies if you want an easy to make recipe but at the same time, adding a personal touch to your gift.

Traditionally, this cookie follows the 1 to 2 to 3 ratio, that is, one part of sugar to two parts of butter to three parts of flour. Because of its simplicity, you would get the original taste of its buttery salty sweetness. For a little bit of variation, you could replace 1/5 part of the flour with rice flour or cornstarch to give it a different texture. Besides that, you could also alternate between icing sugar or castor sugar. When you have such basic ingredients, it is essential that you get good quality ingredients so that the flavours come out authentic and strong. Yes, invest in a good (and expensive!) butter and try your best to get your hands on that pure vanilla extract if you could. You wouldn't regret the effort.

This is the basic recipe for shortbread cookies. Not my best work, but I have to concur it tastes bloody good. This easy shortbread cookies that could be transformed into multiple variations. It is akin to a white canvas waiting to be painted with colours and textures. Therefore, I suggest you make a big batch of this cookie to be divided into a few different recipes, saving you tons of work. The best thing is, you could pre-make these various cookie doughs and keep it frozen until the very last minute when you are about to give this away. Bake it then and you would get fresh mouth-watering buttery shortbreads immediately. Very handy if you have guests over. And if you are all too lazy to even warm the oven, just wrap it nicely to be given away as cookie dough present!

Shortbread Cookies 奶英式奶油酥

Adapted from Joy of Baking

Ingredients

260 g flour
225 g salted butter, room temperature
60 g castor sugar (original recipe uses icing sugar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt


Cooking Instruction

1. Combine flour and salt and mix. Preheat oven to 150C.

2. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and add in sugar. Whisk until butter turns pale and creamy in about two minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl.

3. Beat in vanilla extract.

4. Using a spatula, stir in flour until well combined.

5. Pour mixture into a lined baking pan. Level with spatula, score lines for the rectangles and make indents using a fork. Bake at 150C for 20 to 25 minutes or until cookies are slightly browned at the edges.

6. Remove from oven and cut along the lines into rectangles while it is still warm. Serve plain or dipped in chocolate.





Also check out my previous year's Christmas Butter Cookies here:

Or my Fudgy Chocolate Crinkles here:

Easy Teriyaki Chicken Recipe 简单日式照烧鸡

Yes, I know I just posted a teriyaki sauce recipe...and it is not complete if I don't show you how to use it. This recipe is so simple yet so sapid, glazed with that sticky glossy potion. Teriyaki is a Japanese term used for cooking technique that involves grilling or broiling. However, with the advent of technology, we are now also cooking teriyaki dishes baked or pan-fried. Today I am going to pan-fry my chicken in teriyaki sauce. It is simpler and faster than grilling, perfect fit into today's busy lifestyles. Although pan-frying would lose some of that smoky flavour that is related to grilling, the chicken that is pan-fried is actually more moist and tender. This easy teriyaki chicken recipe is my one-pot (or pan) quick solution with only one pan to wash thereafter.

Easy Teriyaki Sauce 日式照烧酱

Ah...teriyaki sauce. Vastly popular and many variations. I bet you have tried it at least once in this lifetime of yours. But hey, do you know that teriyaki sauce is one of the simplest sauce to make with only four (and some three) ingredients? And it only takes you 10 - 15 minutes to make.

The core ingredients for this teriyaki sauce are mirin, sake, shoyu (Japanese soy sauce) and sugar. Looks easy right? I have to admit I had trouble finding the ingredients. It took me to a few places before I got my hands on the sake and mirin. And mind you, I am living in an Asian country whereby Asian groceries are easily available. Even now, I am not sure if I got the correct sake and mirin because it is written in Japanese! I only have to trust the assistant who gave me these two precious bottles of condiment.

Key Lime Cheesecake 青檸芝士蛋糕

It this a pie? Is this a bar? No, it is actually key lime cheesecake in the form of a pie. How does that come about? I can assure you it is not intentional. The fact is, I have too little filling to fill up the whole crust; my only grouse for this trial. I have since rectified this in the ingredients section. You should be able to find the corrected amount if you follow this recipe.

Sing Kong tofu 星光豆腐

I am surprised how little information is available for this dish. Maybe I just do not know where to find the info, maybe there is another name for this dish or maybe, it is just popular in my area. If I am not wrong, this is another made-in-Malaysia dish. This dish is basically tofu cooked in thickened egg gravy. The gravy is similar to that of a Cantonese-style fried flat noodle (wat tan hor).