Recent Photos (captions to come later)

Swedish-ish Meatballs (dinner Apr 29)



Solyanka (dinner Apr 30)

Honey Almond Rice Pudding of Pleyn Delit

Got the following recipe from the book shown above. To read more about how I acquired this little gem of a cookbook and to gain a few small morsels of knowledge about medieval cookery, click here.

Click on picture to see it up close

Note: what I used for a pleasant variation is in square brackets
Ingredients:
1/2 cup short grain rice [brown rice, with longer cooking time]
2 1/2 cups milk, water, or a combination [2 cups milk and 1/2 cup sweet soy milk]
1/2 cup ground almonds blanched [1/2 cup almond slices and a handful of currants]
1/2 cup sugar [slightly less]
2 Tbsp honey [rounded tablespoons]
1 cup boiling water [slightly less]

Method:
Cover the rice with milk (or whatever combination you wish here) and bring to a simmer; cook over very low heat, very gently, for at least 30 minutes or until rice is cooked, stirring occasionally and adding more water if it shows signs of drying out. Remove from heat and set aside to cool so that any remaining liquid is absorbed. Meanwhile, place almonds, sugar and honey in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Stir and allow almond mixture to steep. When rice has cooled, stir this mixture into it and allow rice pudding mixture to simmer on medium low for 10 minutes or as long as it takes for the pudding to become as thick as you like it. Remove from heat and pour into serving dish or individual pudding cups or bowls. Cool and chill. Sprinkle a little cinnamon powder before serving if desired.

Chicken Bao, Singapore-style

Makes 8 medium sized baos (or buns, if you will)

For those of you in the know, this bao is not exactly "Toh Kee" (famous bao shop that was at People's Park Food Centre until a little while ago; now at Upper Cross Street) standard. It is, however, good enough for us. Make it bigger or smaller. It's all up to you. I once tried making small baos, and another time big ones, and it does not seem to me that the steaming time of 10 minutes needs to be adjusted much.



Some photos of the latest attempt

For the bao filling: sorry--all your own estimation here!
1. chicken thigh meat, cut into bite-sized chunks and seasoned for about 10 minutes at least, with cornstarch (for tenderness and a slightly starchy consistency), pepper, light soy sauce, a little oyster sauce, a dash of sesame oil, sprinkling of sugar, and finely chopped spring onions.
2. hard-boiled eggs (cook, shell and cut into bite-sized chunks)
3. (optional: we used only chicken and egg) sliced bamboo shoots (canned ones) or thinly sliced water chestnuts - just fry with the chicken
Method: Quickly stir fry the seasoned chicken chunks in some oil, adding a little bit of water for just a little gravy, and cook on medium high until chicken is just cooked. Mix in hard-boiled egg chunks, and, if necessary, add a little more light soy sauce and sesame oil until the filling tastes great.

For the bao skin:
4 Tbsp warm water (not too hot--you'll kill the yeast!)
1 Tbsp quick-rise yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 slightly rounded tsp salt
11 Tbsp milk
1 Tbsp oil
3 cups flour
Method:
1. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water and let stand for 5 minutes.
2. Add to this yeast mixture salt, milk and oil, and stir to combine.
3. Stir in flour.
4. Knead 5-10 minutes or until dough is smooth. You can add just a little bit of water if dough looks too dry and does not hold together well.
5. Divide dough into 8 more or less evenly sized balls
6. Press balls into rounds as thinly as you like it, though not so thin that it breaks when wrapping the filling
7. Place suitable amount of filling onto the centre of the round, pick up the sides of the dough and secure with a few kneads at the top so that filling is all covered up.
8. Place each bao on a piece of suitably sized paper (we used ordinary white printing paper), and let them rise (covered, in a steamer basket) for about 1 1/2 hours or until almost doubled in size.
9. Bring the water under the steamer to a boil, and let baos steam for 10 minutes.
10. Enjoy them hot!

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Potstickers, also known as Jiaozi Guotie*

*An alert reader spotted my mistake. Potstickers are guotie--literally too. Dumplings are jiaozi.

Makes 12 pieces

(Image taken from tastingmenu.com; ours look similar)

Ingredients:
150g plain flour
pinch of salt
½ Tbsp oil
½ cup warm water
225g minced pork
1 Tbsp diced spring onion
a little shredded cabbage or spinach
a little bit of finely diced fresh water chestnut (for some crunch)

Seasoning for pork filling – ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp sugar, 3 tsp tapioca starch, 2 tsp light soy sauce, ½ tsp Chinese wine, a little pepper and sesame oil

Method:
1. Sieve plain flour, add salt and oil.
2. Mix in sufficient warm water to form soft dough. Set aside 30 minutes.
3. Season minced pork, add spring onion, and stir until sticky. Chill in fridge 30 minutes to an hour.
4. Knead and divide dough into 12 equal portions on a floured surface.
5. Roll each piece of dough to a thin round, and wrap in each a good lump of filling. Fold, seal and pleat (press tightly) to the shape of potstickers. Place potstickers on a floured surface (e.g. plate, or container), making sure that there is ample flour between potstickers so they don't stick together.
6. Bring a pot of water (or soup stock) to a boil, add potstickers, allow it to boil again, and let potstickers cook on medium for about 5 minutes or until the centre of the filling is cooked.
7. If you like, you can then add 1 Tbsp of oil to a non-stick pan and shallow fry the bottom of the potstickers until golden brown.
8. Serve hot, with sauce (optional: try a mix of light soy sauce, a few drops of white vinegar, a little bit of ground ginger or fresh ginger slivers, and a dash of sesame oil).

These potstickers are great by themselves as a side dish or appetizer, in soup as a main course, or with noodles (lightly seasoned with a little light soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper and a dash of vinegar).

Note: Uncooked potstickers keep well in the freezer. Make sure they are kept separated by flour in an air-tight container or ziploc before freezing. Do not defrost before cooking--simply take them out from the freezer and throw them straight into boiling water. Increase cooking time by a little as meat filling is frozen. Unused portions of dough also keep well in an airtight container in the fridge--mine survived for a week.