Tangy Muffins

Fragrant and tangy muffins.. Mmmm..

My own recipe =P

Serving: Makes 4

Ingredients:

90g Wheat flour (sifted)
About 1/2 to 1 teaspoon baking powder
60g caster sugar
1 egg
60g butter
About 1 to 2 tablespoons milk
Mixed juice from 1/2 lemon (fresh) and 1/4 orange (fresh)*
2 teaspoons Orange zest
About 1/4 cup oatmeal

*Note I did not use all the juice... But that's the proportion I'd used..

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degree celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit).
   
2. Beat butter and sugar in a bowl until smooth and creamy.
   
3. Beat in the egg.
   
4. Pour about 1/2 to 3/4 of the lemon and orange juice mix into the butter/sugar/egg batter in (2). Mix well.
   
5. Fold the flour and baking powder into the mixture in (3).
   
6. Mix in milk.
   
7. Fold in orange zest.
   
8. Fold in the oatmeal.
   
9. Pour your mixture into muffin cups, make sure to only fill about 1/2 to 3/4 of the cup.
   
10. Bake in the oven for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until the muffins turn a golden color.
    

Night time baking...

I don't know... It's just therapeutic..

Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies


Got the recipe from here but I tweaked it a little. I reduced the portions by about half for all ingredients (Didn't want to make so many cookies), replaced the canola oil with butter, omitted the vanilla extract and added in about one or a couple tablespoons of milk. I guess you could opt not to add in the milk for a crispier version.


Lemon Squares


I pretty much followed the recipe here but halved the portion for each ingredient, omitted the vanilla extract, replaced the lemon extract with about a few teaspoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice and added in about 1 to 2 teaspoons of lemon zest. The cookies tasted yummy! (But a bit on the sweet side. If I were to make it again, I'd reduce the sugar and increase the amount of lemon juice by a little)

Healthy Fluffy Puffy Omelette

Hmm... Tried this out just now... The omelette actually almost dissolved in my mouth... O.O Wow...

Recipe
======

(per serving)

Ingredients:
1 egg
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon water
1/4 teaspoon mirin
1 leveled dessertspoon olive oil or butter (if you want it to be more fragrant but more sinful...)

Other ingredients:
salt and pepper to taste (i didn't add though)

Directions:
1. Separate the egg white and egg yolk. Beat the egg white until it forms a foam. Add in the cream of tartar and continue beating until stiff peaks are formed. (You can use mixer... But I beat by hand... Exercising.. LOL)

2. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees fahrenheit (about 170 degrees celsius).** I put this step here just in case your oven takes pretty long to preheat...

3. Add water, mirin and the egg yolk to the beaten egg white, and fold them in gently.

4. You can add in salt and pepper for taste at this point. Remember to mix in gently.

5. Over the stove using low or medium heat, heat the olive oil / melt butter in a small rectangular baking pan.

6. Pour the egg mixture into the pan into the hot oil and cook it for about 3 minutes or until the underside has turned golden brown. (I heated it for too short a time, hence ending up with the underside that's only golden.. =\)

7. Bake for 10 minutes or until the top has turned golden and the top springs back when tapped with finger. Run a teaspoon or spatula or butter knife etc around the sides to loosen the omelette from the baking pan. Place (or PLOP... Well.. that's what happens whenever I turn the baking pan upside down to get the contents inside out...) the omelette on a plate. Serve.

8. Enjoy!

Orange Dango - Recipe

Suddenly had the craving for fruity dango... (Actually, it's just dango with a fruit sauce..)



Recipe:

Ingredients for dango
(for 3 sticks of 5 balls)
Dango flour -- About 1/2 cup
Orange food coloring -- sufficient to tint
Warm water

Directions for making dango
Mix Dango flour and food coloring in a bowl. Add in warm water slowly and mix until you get a dough with a consistency similar to your earlobe.. (hahhaha... that's what the instructions in jap say...) Divide the dough into 15 equal pieces and roll each of them into a ball.

Heat up a saucepan of water. When it comes to a boil, put in the balls of dough.

While the dango balls are cooking, prepare a bowl of cold water with ice cubes added. Once the dango balls come afloat, transfer them to the cold water and ice.

Next, prepare the orange sauce.

Ingredients for Orange Sauce
Juice of 1 Orange
Mirin -- About 3 dessertspoons
Katakuriko/Potato Starch (optional) -- 1/2 teaspoon mixed with a bit of water

Mix the orange juice and mirin in a saucepan, and heat it over slow fire. Let it bubble for a while.

(optional)Add in the potato starch/water mix and stir the sauce.

Let the mixture bubble till it becomes slightly thick (it will still feel watery, but when u taste it, u can feel that it's slightly thicker than the orange juice)

Turn off the heat and transfer the orange sauce to a small bowl. You may chill it to make the sauce thicker.

Serving
Soak 3 satay sticks (bamboo skewers) in water for a 1 or 2 minutes. For every skewer, thread 5 balls of dango. Place the skewers of dango onto a plate. Pour the orange sauce over the dango balls. Enjoy.

(Will post the recipe for traditional dango some other day..)

Soba and Medium Spicy Yakitori - Recipe

My mum didn't cook dinner today as she and my dad had a wedding dinner to attend. So I took this chance to whip up my own meal. Today's menu was soup soba and grilled chicken wings with medium hot yakitori sauce. Moving on with my recipes..!

Chicken Wings with Medium Spicy Yakitori Sauce



+++Ingredients+++

(For 1 or 2 persons)

3 or 4 pieces of chicken wings
3 dessertspoons of pre-packaged medium spicy yakitori sauce
2 dessertspoons of cooking sake

Directions:

1. Taw the chicken wings and poke a small hole using ur knife through each side of the chicken wings. (This is to allow the chicken to absorb the marinate; as well as to make sure the chicken is fully cooked. My tummy cannot stand unwell-cooked meat..)

2. Mix the above 3 ingredients very well in a bowl and set aside to marinate for at least 15 min.

3. Line a baking tray with aluminium foil. (For my conventional microwave oven, I need to preheat under the Grill on Low Heat setting)

4. Place the chicken wings in the lined tray and pour the marinate over the chicken.

5. Place your tray in the oven and grill it on low heat* for about 4 min*. Turn your chicken wings and grill them for another 4 min. Repeat this step. (Total cooking time is 15 to 16 min)

6. Enjoy.

*Please adjust heat and timing based on your oven specs.

Right, before I go on with the recipe for soup soba... Do you still remember Masako? The exchange student that XB's family hosted? Yup. Let me give you her recipe for cold soba first.


Cold Soba

+++Ingredients+++

(For 6 persons)

Sauce ingredients:
4 ladles of water
1 ladle of soya sauce
1 ladle of sweet rice wine
1 ladle of un-sweet rice wine
2 small packs of bonito flakes

Directions to make the sauce:

1. Place the water, soya sauce and the 2 rice wines in a pot and bring to a boil.
2. Add the bonito flakes once the mixture boils and turn the fire off.
3. Leave it till the flakes sink (approximately 5 mins)
4. Remove flakes and refrigerate.

Cooking the soba:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil.
2. Add the soba and wait till the water boils again.
3. Bring down the flame to a slow fire for 3 mins.
4. Turn off the fire and place the noodles in cold water.
5. Wash the noodles 3 times under running water to cool them down.
6. Place the noodles in ice.

* Serve the sauce in individual bowls and noodles in individual plates.


OKAY! Now, the soup version of soba.. For the soup version, we need to reduce the ratio of the sauce ingredients to water by half. This saltiness is just right for me. If you prefer something saltier (which i advise not to... it's not very healthy...), u can increase the amounts in the brackets.


Soup Soba

++Ingredients++

(For 1 person)

For soup:

320ml water
40ml shoyu (50ml if u prefer saltier... ><)
40ml cooking sake
40ml mirin
1/2 to 1 small packet bonito flakes

For soba:

Any ingredients you like to add into the soup soba... LOL.. For mine, I have

6 thin slices of japanese fish cake
A handful of cabbage
A little Japanese mushrooms
2 cocktail sausages
1 egg
Nori to taste (Japanese seaweed)

Just boil the above (except nori) before placing them on the soba noodles.


Japanese fish cake, red version


Familiar?

I've cooked mine using this sequence:
1. Boil the ingredients to be put over noodles
2. Cook the soba noodles
3. Make the soup

Directions to cook soba noodles (same as cold soba):

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil.
2. Add the soba and wait till the water boils again.
3. Bring down the flame to a slow fire for 3 mins.
4. Turn off the fire and place the noodles in cold water.
5. Wash the noodles 3 times under running water to cool them down.
6. Place the noodles in ice.

Directions to make the soup:

1. Place the water, soya sauce and sake in a pot and bring to a boil.
2. Add the bonito flakes once the mixture boils and turn the fire off.
3. Leave it till the flakes sink (approximately 5 mins)
4. Remove flakes.


To serve:

Place the cooked soba noodles in a big enough bowl. Place your boiled ingredients nicely on the noodles. Sprinkle the nori over the noodles and boiled ingredients.


Here's how I place my stuff...

Pour the soup over the noodles and ingredients. Enjoy.


Tadaaaa!

Lemon Mochi...

... Actually, it's more of a lemon meringue kind of filling wrapped in mochi..



Recipe (makes abt 18 lemon mochi-s)

Lemon Filling
===============
1/2 cup Sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 Tablespoons plain flour/all-purpose flour
1 Dash Salt
3/4 cup Hot water
1 Egg yolk, slightly beaten
1/2 Teaspoons lemon rind/zest
1/4 Cup lemon Juice

1. Combine sugar, cornstarch, flour and salt; Blend in water.
2. Heat the mixture over the stove with medium High/High heat while stirring constantly.
3. Once the mixture thickens, quickly reduce the heat to low medium/medium; cook and stir until the mixture becomes a very thick paste.
4. Remove from heat.
5. Stir a small amount of the hot mixture into the egg yolk; Return to hot mixture.
6. Cook this mixture over low medium/medium heat, stirring constantly. (the thick paste will turn a nice yellow color)
7. Remove from heat.
8. Add in lemon peel and stir in the lemon juice.
9. Stir this now slightly thinned down mixture over low heat, to get back the thick consistency u had before.
10. Remove from heat, and cool for about 10 minutes.
11. Chill in the refrigerator for about 30 min to 1 hour.


Some leftover filling.. This should be the consistency of the final product of your lemon filling.

Mochi Skin
============
1 Cup Mochiko (glutinous rice flour)
1 Cup Water
1 to 2 Dessertspoons Sugar

For Dusting katakuriko (potato starch)

1. Mix the 1st 3 ingredients in a microwave-safe bowl, and blend well.
2. Cover the mixture with a microwave-safe glass lid, leaving a small gap to release steam. Set your microwave-oven on High, and cook the mixture for 2 minutes.
3. Take out and stir the mixture very well.
4. Cover the mixture with the lid again, leaving a small gap. Set your microwave-oven on Medium high, and cook the mixture for another 2 minutes.
5. Take out and stir will.
6. Follow step 4 again.
7. Take out the mixture and stir until it turns glossy and smooth. Set aside to cool down for 5 min.
8. Line a large baking pan with aluminium foil/baking sheet. Dust the lining with katakuriko generously.
9. Transfer the cooked mochi skin from the bowl to your dusted lined pan and rest the mochi skin for another 5 minutes.
10. Dust your hands and the mochi skin well. Divide the dough into 18 pieces.
11. Take your filling out from the refrigerator. Take each portion of the mochi dough, and flatten it. (Try to make the edges thinner than the inside) Use a dessertspoon and scoop about 1/3 spoonful of filling onto the mochi skin. (You could use a teaspoon, and scoop 1 spoonful). Wrap the filling with the mochi skin by pressing and pulling the edges of the skin over the filling to the centre. Dust your mochi skin a bit more with katakuriko. Your lemon mochi is done.


All my lemon mochis nicely wrapped..

Note: This batch of lemon mochis tastes very different from the cocoa mochi I've made earlier. It tastes like lemon meringue without the meringue (Replaced with mochi skin).. LOL... The filling's pretty sweet, so the amount of sugar is reduced for the skin. It has a little tart taste too! I like!

FOr those who have a sweet tooth (prefer sweet to sour), you can use 3/4 cups of sugar instead of the 1/2 cup to make a sweeter filling. (Will be too sweet for me though..)

Chocolate Chips Mochi

I've made mochi before, but I find that the consistency of the cooked mochi this time round is better.. But reheating the mochi (to melt the chocolate chips) for more than 30 seconds will totally DESTROY it!!!! ARGHH... Regretted reheating it...



Chocolate Chips Mochi

Ingredients for mochi

Mochiko (glutinous rice flour) 1 Cup
Sugar less than 1/2 Cup (If your chocolate chips are very sweet, go easy on the sugar.. Unless you like very sweet stuff..)
Unsweetened Cocoa Powder 1 or 2 dessertspoons to tint the mochi
Water 1 Cup

Chocolate Chips Enough to be wrapped with your mochi skins...
Katakuriko (potato starch) Enough for dusting

Directions for making mochi

1. Mix the mochiko, sugar and unsweetened cocoa powder together.
2. Pour water to the mixture at one go as u continue mixing/stirring. Stir until the mixture is dissolved. (There might be lumps of the chocolate powder, but it's ok. This will be taken care of when u cook the mochi)
3. Wrap your bowl of dissolved mixture with saran wrap (and poke a hole on it to release steam) or cover with microwavable pyrex glass cover (do not cover completely. Leave a small gap to release steam).

IMPORTANT STEPS:
A) Set your microwave to HIGH and cook your mochi for 2 minutes. Take it out, and stir into a consistent paste.
B) Set your microwave to MEDIUM HIGH and cook your mochi for another 2 minutes. Take it out, and stir well.
C) Set your microwave to MEDIUM HIGH and cook your mochi for the last 2 minutes. Take it out, and stir very well until your mixture is a glossy, smooth paste.
D) Your mochi is done.

4. Let your mochi cool for about 5 minutes. During this time, get any large tray/pan ready and line it with aluminium foil/baking sheet (this is to make your life easier as none of the very sticky mochi will stick to your tray/pan). Dust the lining with katakuriko generously.

5. Transfer the still pretty hot mochi dough to the lined tray/pan (using a spoon or something... not your hands...). Let it cool for another 5 minutes.

6. You should be able to handle your mochi at this stage without scalding your hands. (It's still pretty warm though! Be careful!) Dust your hands with katakuriko generously. Roll the mochi into a rod shape. Divide the dough into around 15 to 20 equal parts (if you prefer smaller chocolate chips mochi, you can divide into more parts and vice versa). Take each portion, roll into a ball, and press flat. Try to make the thickness of the center thicker than the thickness of the edges. Place any amount of chocolate chips u like in the center of the flat piece, and wrap them up by pulling and pressing the edges, over the chocolate chips filling, to the center. There you have it, a chocolate chips mochi!

7. You could melt the chocolate chips in the mochi by reheating the chocolate chips mochi in the microwave on LOW for NOT more than 30 seconds. The mochi might seem flattened though... coz the insides have melted... If you prefer to have a nicely-shapped chocolate chips mochi, then I suggest Not reheating it.

Notes: The making of the mochi (the skin) is easy... It's the wrapping that's hard as the cooked mochi dough is very sticky and soft. You could tear portions of the mochi dough as u go with the wrapping. But the mochi balls might end up with different sizes. I checked my chocolate chips mochi this morning again. The mochi is slightly firmer and can retain its shape better now. Do not refrigerate your mochi!! Unless u wan hard mochi... =X

Oh, if you want to know how to wrap each individual mochi my way, follow the instructions below:


Typo: Fold along the blue lines with the mochi inside, to form a container like below...

スノーボール クッキー (Snowball Cookies)

Yupz, made a batch of snowball cookies for the sake of my Japanese homework (... erm... to take photos.. that's why...) Got the recipe from a Japanese site for desserts. Can have a look if you understand Japanese(or use babel fish to translate the page... But I can't guarantee you can get an accurate translation...).


Looks yummy, isn't it? It DOES taste yummy.

Will post my rendition of the recipe soon. (Slightly different from the original recipe)

Recipe: Snowball cookies
If you follow my recipe, you'll get 10 big white snowball cookies and 20 small chocolate snowball cookies.

Ingredients:

^^For white snowballs^^

Unsalted butter ..... About 55g
Plain flour ..... About 55g
Granule sugar ..... About 25g (15g if u prefer less sweet)
Vanilla Essence ..... About 1/4 teaspoon
Freshly squeezed orange juice ..... About 4 teaspoons
Icing sugar ..... For sprinkling

^^For chocolate snowballs^^

Unsalted butter ..... About 55g
Plain flour ..... About 55g
Granule sugar ..... About 25g (15g if u prefer less sweet)
Cocoa powder ..... About 10g to 15g (depending on how chocolate-y you like)
Chocolate chips ..... About 20g (or however chocolate-y you like)
Icing sugar ..... For sprinkling

Directions:

For white snowballs ->

Preparation:
- Leave butter aside till it's soft.

1. Cream the butter.
2. Add granule sugar and mix thoroughly.
3. Add the sieved flour and mix thoroughly till you get a dough (pretty soft consistency).
4. Mix in vanilla essence and orange juice.
5. Wrap the dough in a translucent wrap or put the dough into a transparent ziplock bag. Use a rolling pin and roll the dough into a 1cm thick square or rectangle. Put the wrap/bag into the refrigerator and cool for at least 30 minutes to harden.
6. Just before taking the dough out of the wrap, preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius.
6. Take the dough out of the wrap, and cut it into 10 equal pieces.
7. Roll each piece into a ball (or try to shape them into a slightly rounder shape if it's not easy to handle) and put them onto a lined baking tray.
8. Bake at 170 degree celsius for 20 minutes.
9. Wait for the cookies to cool down and harden before sprinkling the icing sugar over them.

For chocolate snowballs ->

Preparation:
- Sieve plain flour and cocoa powder together.
- Leave butter aside till it's soft.

1. Cream the butter.
2. Add granule sugar and mix thoroughly.
3. Add the sieved flour and cocoa powder, and mix thoroughly till you get a dough (pretty soft consistency).
4. Mix in the chocolate chips lightly.
5. Wrap the dough in a translucent wrap or put the dough into a transparent ziplock bag. Use a rolling pin and roll the dough into a 1cm thick square or rectangle. Put the wrap/bag into the refrigerator and cool for at least 30 minutes to harden.
6. Just before taking the dough out of the wrap, preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius.
6. Take the dough out of the wrap, and cut it into 20 equal pieces.
7. Roll each piece into a ball (or try to shape them into a slightly rounder shape if it's not easy to handle) and put them onto a lined baking tray.
8. Bake at 170 degree celsius for 20 minutes.
9. Wait for the cookies to cool down and harden before sprinkling the icing sugar over them.

Enjoy!

Note: If you prefer your cookies less sweet, you can opt out the icing sugar (which would not make your cookies look like snowballs though...) or reduce the granule sugar slightly.

日本料理を作った

My parents didn't cook today, so I made use of this opportunity to cook my own Japanese meal... Even though I've cooked soup soba, Japanese curry and "rolled" sushi before (<-- note the verb i used...), this is the first time I'm cooking Japanese rice. Luckily, it turned out okay.. Hahahha.. Today's menu was "Yakitori and Kare omu donburi", Japanese egg drop soup and mini onigiri. Sounds like a feast, isn't it? Hahaha.. Oh well, the onigiri was made from the leftover rice meant for the donburi... And to have kare omu (curry omelette) was an impromptu thing...

焼き鳥とカレオム丼.ミニおにぎり.卵スップ

Click on picture to enlarge. (That wine glass is just for show... It contained ribena.. Hahaha...)

Rhinestic's recipe for yakitori

Satay sticks (Thin wooden skewers)

5 to 6 small chicken drumsticks (Please use chicken breast instead... The reason I used chicken drumsticks was because my house ran out of chicken breast... Hahah..)

1 level dessertspoon of sake for cooking

2 level dessertspoons of yakitori sauce (you can get it in most major supermarkets.. I bought mine from the Isetan supermarket)

1 level dessertspoon of cornflour

Drizzle of yakitori sauce (Will need it just before grilling)

1. De-skin and De-bone the drumsticks/chicken breast. Put them in a bowl.
2. Mix in the cornflour.
3. Pour in the sake and yakitori sauce. Mix well. Set aside for at least 30 min (best results if set aside for about 2 hours. I was kinda hungry, so I marinated for only 30 min.)
4. After setting aside for some time, poke a few pieces of chicken meat through each satay stick. Leave about 2 to 3 inches empty at one end so that u can use that area to turn during grilling.
5. Just before putting the sticks of chicken meat to grill, drizzle some yakitori sauce over the meat. This will give them a nice caramelized glaze over the chicken.
6. If you are grilling the chicken in the oven (which I was using..), make sure to oil your grilling tray a bit. On my oven, there's a "meat skewer" choice. I used that to grill for 16 min, turning over every 4 min. If your oven doesn't have that choice, set the temperature to 200 degree celsius, and grill the chicken for 20 min, turning them once every 5 min. (<-- this instruction is printed on the yakitori sauce bottle)
7. Enjoy.


Rhinestic's recipe for kare omu (curry omelette)

1 egg

A handful of julienned cabbage/chinese cabbage

1 packet of curry omelette mix

1 level dessertspoon of vegetable oil (I used a bit less)

1. Cook the cabbage in a saucepan of boiling water. When they're cooked, take them out and set aside.
2. Crack an egg into a bowl. Beat it to mix the yolk and egg white well).
3. Mix in the curry omelette mix. (You can replace this with plain curry powder with a bit of salt or shoyu)
4. Pour in the vegetable oil into a saucepan (preferably non-stick).
5. When the oil is heated, pour in the egg mix.
6. When the underside of the egg is cooked, put in the cooked cabbage.
7. When the egg is almost done, turn off the fire. Roll up the egg or fold it in half. This will allow the egg to be fully cooked.
8. Enjoy.

Rhinestic's recipe for 焼き鳥とカレオム丼

1. Cook some japanese rice.
2. Follow the above 2 recipes.
3. Cook some julienned cabbage/chinese cabbage in a saucepan of boiling water. When they're cooked, take them out and set aside.
3. Place the cooked rice into a bowl, followed by placing the kare omu. Then place the cabbage on top of the rice that's not covered.
4. For the sauce, pour about 2 level dessertspoon of yakitori sauce, abt 1 level dessertspoons of cooking sake, and about 1 level dessertspoon of water into a saucepan. Turn off the heat when the mixture bubbles. Drizzle the sauce over the cabbage and rice.
5. Place the grilled chicken on top of the cabbage.
6. Enjoy.


Pictures of my plants
Alright, the pictures for last week...


Petunia


Mandarin oranges seedlings


Chilli Padi seedling...


Many chilli padi seedlings.... =='''


Cherry tomato seedling


Red amaranth

That's last week... Look at what happened this week!


My red amaranth.... IT'S GROWING FLOWERS!!! Click the picture to enlarge it! Haha... The thing in front is cherry tomato..

Cannot see the flowers??? Here's a closer look... Look at where the arrows are pointing...

Still cannot see??!?!? Go enlarge it! Click on the picture! Hahaha...