Bento Days January (3)

Some Bento lunches for this week. As I get busier and lazy in the morning, I resort to pre-made stuffs for the fillers. Here I perked up some all white meat chicken nuggets with smiley faces and used store bought ready cooked Pork Gyoza to add the protein part of the Bento. Although convenient, always read the ingredients on the back of the package before buying and choose one with less MSG and preservatives.

Chicken Nuggets decorated with punched out nori faces

Pan Fried Pork Gyoza served with side soy sauce

(See the Full Review of the Gyoza)

Pineapple Tartlets & Pineapple Jam Filled cookies

Happy Chinese New Year to all my family in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada and wherever that I cannot remember. Yes, I have relatives all over the world and I am sure they celebrate Chinese New Year, regardless on a large or small scale. In the Chinese Lunar Calendar, every year is represented by an animal, with 12 animals in total, and rotating every 12 years. This year will be the Year of the Rabbit/Hare and for any babies born on February 3 or thereafter till the next Chinese New Year, together with those who will be 12, 24, 36, 48 and so on, you are all  Human Bunnies!  Basically it is Astrology in the Chinese sense, more superstitious I would say but fun to read about.

This year's New Year will fall on Thursday February 3 and we celebrate it for a total of 15 days, with emphasis on the Eve, 1st and 2nd days and the 15th day. Back in Malaysia and Hong Kong, offices and business organizations will be closed and relatives and friends will be visiting each other to send their well wishes. And the most important focus during this celebration is the food on the table, and starting from the Eve night, families gather around for dinner over a variety of dishes, specially prepared and auspiciously arranged and named to welcome a new and prosperous year. When I was young, I loved the mornings of the 1st and 2nd days as we all sat and ate a full meal complete with rice, meat, vegetable and soup for breakfast. Sadly though, my own kids are being raised here in USA, where we are so far apart from families and missing out on all the fun of gatherings and the spirit of the celebration. Fortunately we have friends around who are like myself, expatriate and simply hold this tradition of celebrating very important to remind ourselves and educate our kids of their Chinese origins and customs. Although we celebrate it on a really small way, I feel happy.

These pineapple cookies and tartlets are part of the New Year celebration. I am not very sure which Asian country nor group of the many Chinese ethnicity that started these cookies, but these days there are many versions of these cookies. Most Malaysians love the open faced shape where the pineapple jam filling is exposed and lodged on a slice of pastry while most of the others that I have seen in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan are enclosed inside the pastry itself. I like both and my requirement is that the pineapple filling itself is the right sweetness with a hint of cinnamon. In the Chinese language, the sound of pineapple is synonymous with the meaning of 'Luck Coming'. As with their unique beliefs, Chinese people are very observant of their culture, words and way of life, and if they can relate to anything that is auspicious especially concerning fortune and wealth, they will adopt the idea. Hence, giving a container of these cookies to a host or serving to guests, the idea is to bring wishes of wealth to the receiver.

To make the pineapple jam and the pastry itself is not difficult at all. The hardwork comes when rolling the pastry dough and making the filled in cookies itself as the dough tends to be soft and can break easily when rolled with too much pressure and the amount of filling must be right so that the cookies can be wrapped up nicely. Frustration can mount after one or two attempts but you just have to work out on which is the best you can do. The open face shape poses no problem as long as the dough is rolled to about 1/4 inch thick, cut and stamped out with the proper mould. I used a mould to shape the pillow shape but round ones can be done with hands. I added vegetable shortening to the butter to get a more lighter and flakier pastry and this creates a steady and tender texture that doesn't crumble easily and gives a slight crunch when bite into. There are recipes using wholly butter which I believe provides a better structure for the filled in cookies, contrary to vegetable shortening which provides a more tender and lighter pastry.

Recipe

Ingredients

Filling

650g canned pineapple chunks, juice drained

100g sugar

1 tsp cinnamon powder

How to Make it

1. Roughly cut the pineapple chunks smaller. Use a food processor if available but do not over process or mush but only roughly chop, leaving smaller chunks. Heat a saucepan and put in the pineapple and sugar and let it bubble over medium heat.

2. Once it reaches boiling stage, turn down the heat and stir. Let it cook for about 30 mins till the liquid is almost evaporated completely. Sprinkle in the cinnamon powder and stir to mix. When the jam starts to splatter, it is done and remove from heat and let cool completely or store in the refrigerator till ready for use.

Pastry

180g cold and malleable butter

50g chilled vegetable shortening

50g sugar

1/4 tsp salt

400g All Purpose Flour

60 ml milk

1 egg, large

egg wash

extra flour

How to make It

1. Beat the butter and the vegetable shortening together till creamy. In another bowl, beat the egg and milk together.

2. Pour the egg mixture into the butter mixture and continue to mix for another 1 min.

3. Stir the flour, salt and sugar together. Add half of this mixture into the egg mixture and mix well. Add the remaining half in to make a soft dough.

4. Sprinkle work surface and hands with flour. Take 1/3 of the dough, shape into a ball and roll out to 1/4 inch think. Using a round cookie cutter, measuring about 2 inches in diameter, cut out circles from the dough.

5. Spoon 1 heap tsp of the pineapple jam and place in the center of the circle. Do not flatten it out but leave it like a small dome. Gather the edges of the dough gently and pinch to close to contain the filling. Turn the dough upside down with the pinch side down. Gently roll it on the working surface and lift it up and gently roll in your palm. Alternatively, make the open face shape and fill the middle with the pineapple filling. Continue with the rest of the dough and filling. Arrange all the cookie dough on a non stick baking pan.

6. Return to the fridge for 30 mins to chill. Preheat oven to 350F.

7. Remove from fridge and egg wash the cookie dough. Bake for a total of 20 to 25 mins, removing after 15 mins to egg wash again.

8. Remove from the baking pan immediately when done and let cool completely on cookie rack. Store in air tight container for 1 week.

Makes: 35 to 40 Filled cookies

              60 Mini Tartlets

Citron Honey & Kumquat Cream Cakes

For the whole of the past week, I was so occupied with the kids and the snow clearing outside that I barely had energy to last past 8pm everyday. As the kids grow, their level of energy spikes when school is out due to snow and thinking up of activities to occupy them doesn't sound so simple anymore. When one activity is suitable for one, the older one thinks it is a waste of time and when the older one can do her own stuffs, the little one will bother and holler around. Being a parent these days means being versatile and articulate in all aspects and one day of rest from all things concerning kids is really priceless. To me, I was looking forward to today when all things let loose and I adopt the 'I Don't Care' attitude to stretch my weekend Sunday. And my plan today was to make a lovely cake for tea.

Citron belongs to the citrus fruit family and yields a very fragrant smelling skin and rind. Very little seen in usual groceries, I came to learn about this fruit when I first bought a jar of 'yujacha', which is a syrupy concoction of honey and the citron peel and rind from the Asian store. I first tasted this honey drink in Hong Kong two years ago and started to like it and went about looking for it here. It is basically a Korean drink, which is nicely sweet but not chokingly sugary, fragrant with a slight bitterness from the rind soaked in the honey and when diluted in water, it makes a refreshing drink, hot or cold. Instead of lemon and honey to sooth itchy throats on dry cold days, I like to take citron honey as it is very convenient to mix and drink in an instant.

Kumquat is another citrusy fruit, mostly found in Asia and plentiful during this season, when the Chinese New Year is celebrated. Their miniature tree form with bright yellowish orange colored and dainty olive or small round shaped fruits makes them very pretty as ornamental and decorative plants. In the Chinese language, the citrus fruit which sounds "Kum" is synonymous with the Chinese word "Gold", and this Kumquat plant is usually placed or presented to a host at the Chinese New Year celebrations which resonates with the idea of bringing gold and luck to the receiver or owner. I think this is the only citrus that you can eat as a whole from its peel, rind to its flesh. Slightly sweet and bitter at the same time, you can pop one into your mouth and chew away. The rind is not thick and the flavor of the fruit concentrates on the peel itself rather than its flesh. The Chinese also preserves Kumquat in salt to produce the enzyme and uses the contents to mix into tea or water to provide a soothing drink. As with the citron, they are also used in making marmalades and as garnishes.

For this cake, I added the Kumquat peel and citron honey to the genoise cake base and also to the cream mousse part. Each part was made up separately and arranged together with raspberry jam. I usually make a genoise base cake and cut it into small pieces and shapes with individual molds to shape them with the cream mousse part. I have been using the same Genoise recipe in Flo Braker's book where I can tweak easily to suit my ingredients. I got this book back in 2003 when it was still in its first publication and swear that it is the only cake making book I seriously love to refer to. The mousse part was made up from whipped heavy cream, gelatin, citron honey and kumquat peel. As the honey was sweet enough and sugar is present in the Genoise itself with the additional sweetness in the raspberry jam, I omitted the addition of any sugar in the cream. Overall the flavor of citrus premeates all parts of these cakes but not overbearing nor too sweet like a lemon tart. There is no presence of tartness in these citrus fruits but only a slight bitter bite. The sweet raspberry jam lends a beautiful accent color and cuts through the citrus flavors.

Kumquat

Bento Days January (2)

The second snowstorm of this Winter hit us on Wednesday. Kids were off school and hubby was out of the office to dig snow at home! And for me, I stayed indoors. Everyone was looking forward to the snowstorm as it is pretty strange that we and the rest of the New Englanders to the North seem to have seen too little snow this Winter. I am just happy that this year is not so bad and I am only too happy to hear that the Weather Forecast reporting No Snow! Yes.... the Snow Party Pooper.

Anyway, managed to pack a few Bento for lunches this week. As posted last week, I have done a review of the EasyLunchBoxes and click here to see it all! Here are the other 2 containers with the different colored lids that comes in the 4 in 1 package as marketed by EasyLunchBoxes.

Thyme Corn Bread

My first taste of Cornbread was at one of those big chain eateries which served them as the appetizer dinner bread. It was not a good impression as the texture was so dry that I choked on a clump and had to wash it down my throat! Second time round in another eatery, I tasted their corn bread and I loved it! Besides being moist, there was a slight sweetness to this bread that makes it so tempting, especially when I had to wait forever for the server to bring my main dish order! What I like about it is the coarse texture,  resulted from the mealy corn meal itself together with the subtle sweetness in the added sugar that seems to accentuate the scent of corn in the corn meal itself. The texture of this bread is simply homey, meaning that it resembles the home baking that your grandma make, no fuss and no frills, just plain good thing out of the oven, fresh and fulfilling! 

I wanted to make this for a long time and even bought a box of yellow cornmeal last October! With all the holidays around then, the box got shifted and hidden at the end of the pantry cupboard and I went nuts searching for it today. You know the feeling you get when you think you did bought something and yet cannot find it in your grocery bag or kitchen? As I was short of time almost everyday with tight schedules ruled by my kids schools and activities, I almost gave up the idea! Despite my bakings and blogging, I do these only when time permits and I was glad I found the cornmeal and made this within 1 hour from mixing to baking. My kids are not picky eaters but they always look forward to after school snack time for special treats and they actually liked this cornbread. The only thing is they have to eat it with a large plate to catch all the crumbs!

Recipe

Ingredients

130g All Purpose Flour

130g Yellow Corn Meal

2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 egg

75ml Vegetable or Corn oil

120g low fat Sour Cream

225 ml low fat milk

50g corn niblets

1 tbsp fresh Thyme

How to Make It

1. Preheat oven to 400F and grease a large loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl, stir the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and the Thyme together. Reserve some Thyme for sprinkles.

3. In another bowl, beat the egg lightly and add in the vegetable/corn oil and beat for 1 minute. Stir in the milk and the sour cream next. Stir in the corn niblets.

4. Spoon the flour and cornmeal mixture into the milk mixture and stir to combine. Pour batter into greased pan. Sprinkle the remaining Thyme onto the batter.

5. Bake on the lower rack for 30 mins. Let bread cool in loaf pan for 10 mins after removing from oven and cut and serve. Eat within 2 days.

Serves: 6 persons

Hong Kong Style Minced Beef on Rice/Noodle

On Sundays, I usually stay late in bed and couldn't be bothered about the whole day. But lately I have been waking up early like normal weekdays and couldn't force myself back to bed anymore. And so, I will just surf the web, get lost with the current world's news and food blogs. I leave all the cooking to Curry, and stay away from the kitchen for a day.

Curry has 2 specialties in the cooking world. His instant noodles and this particular minced beef dish. He has been cooking this for years  and only now do I care to ask him on how to do it and post the recipe here.

The minced beef is the accompanying dish to the rice or noodle but serve in one single plate or bowl. I always opt for noodles in soup while my kids prefer the rice.

Curry insists this is a Hong Kong dish, served at those small eateries with offerings of other economical dishes and a one plate dish that many working people eat for lunch or dinner before they rush back to work or dash of to continue with their busy lives in the ever bustling world of Hong Kong.

The trick here is to mince the beef really well to break it down so that they don't clump up during the cooking which as a result produces a dry and chewy dish. Beef is a difficult meat to cook, and this also applies to minced meat.The minced beef that I got from my grocery was minced further with a cleaver to further break it apart and firstly marinated with sugar, salt, dark soy and corn flour. The rice and noodle together with the soup base were cooked separately. To give a nicer presentation to the dishes, additional vegetables like peas or corn and scallions can be added to the minced beef itself.

Recipe

Ingredients

600g Minced beef

1 tsp Sugar

1/2 tsp Salt

2 tsp Corn Flour

1 Tbsp Dark Soy

200g Peas (optional)

Cooked Rice for 3 OR Somen Noodles for 3

Sauce: 1 Tbsp Dark Soy

   1 tsp Sugar

           2 tsp Corn Flour

                     1 tsp Sesame Seed Oil

                      a pinch of white pepper

     3/4 cup water

Soup Base: Beef Stock (portion for 3)

How to Make It

1. Further mince the beef with a large kitchen knife or cleaver for 1 minute.

2. Marinate the minced beef with the sugar, salt, corn flour and dark soy sauce. Stir and mix thoroughly with a spoon. Leave to marinate for 30 mins in the fridge.

3. Plate the cooked rice or noodle and garnish ready with scallion and hard boiled egg.

4. Heat 3 tbsp cooking oil and cook the minced beef, stirring as you go. Continue to cook for 3 mins.

5. Mix up the sauce ingredients in a bowl. Pour into the pan and stir. Bring the sauce to a boil and it will thicken. If too thick add a little water to dilute the consistency. Pour in the peas and stir to mix in with the beef. Let it cook for a further 5 mins.

6. Heat up the Beef Stock for the Noodles and pour into the noodle bowl to half full.

7. Spoon the minced beef onto the rice and noodle. Serve when still hot.

Serves: 3

Bento Days January (1)

It is the year of the Hare/Rabbit in the Chinese Lunar Calendar and for the first bento of the year, I made this one for Miss E. If anyone is born after February 3 this year and those who will be in their ages of 12, 24, 36 and so on with the interval span of 12 years thereafter is a  Human Bunny, literally. Those who were born in the year of the Rabbit are said to be very lucky in everything and talented in the fields that they choose to pursue. For a fact, I find that true as I have family members who were born under this sign and they are good in what they do!

This one was a quick one that I threw together this morning after a long and busy week. I always ask Miss E on what she wants for lunch the next day and try my best to accomodate to her wishes. The mini hearts were made of omelette which was rolled into the nori wrapper and ham.

I would like to thank Kelly Lester of EasyLunchBoxes for sending me these neat lunchboxes from her company. I find it very easy to pack in these ready compartmentalized containers and I am definitely loving the bright colors of the lids to suit my different moods of the day! I will be doing a review on these boxes later when I have more time in hand. Do keep tuned!

Cranberry & Pistachio Sour Cream Muffins

Happy New Year. Every January I get both excited and depressed. The excitement is wanting to start everything new and ditching anything old and useless. While the depressed part is because of the long winter days that seems forever which sets in the cabin fever mood and everything out there looks dull, bald and lifeless. For a start, 2011's winter has not been that bad and I am counting for the temperature to stay above freezing everyday till Spring.

For the first bake of the year I opted for muffins. I like to think of the muffin belonging to the same category as the loaf of bread or buttery pastries like croissants and Danish pastries, which in all complete the morning Breakfast trays. Unlike cupcakes, fancy creamcakes and macarons which tend to be more of a fad of the sweet baking world and only appropriate as special treats on certain occasions or just to pamper oneself out of boredom, muffins are always around steady and easy to find. Personally I love to make muffins because they are quick to mix up, bake and serve. All I need is a pretty paper liner to perk it up.

These muffins resembles the English scones texture with a slight crunch and crisp on the top and a fairly softer but less crumbly texture inside. I love the lighter color of the muffins which lends a nice soft blend with the oozing cranberries which are baked right into the batter itself. Fresh or frozen cranberries are very nice in baked goods as the baking cuts down on the tartness of the berries itself and yet they maintain some juice in them and let out a berry bite to the muffin as a whole.

Recipe

Ingredients

400g Self Raising Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

50g Toasted Pistachio

150g Sugar

2 large eggs

100g Butter (Room Temperature)

175g Sour Cream

1 tsp Vanilla Paste

100g fresh or frozen cranberries

To make

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners.

2. Beat the butter with the sugar till light in color. Beat in the eggs one at a time till combined.

3. Stir in the sour cream together with the vanilla paste till well combined.

4. In another bowl stir the flour together with the baking soda and pistachio. Drop half of the cranberries into the flour bowl and gently mix but do not crush the berries.

5. Spoon half of the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Stir in gently to mix with quick strokes.

6. Take the remaining half of the cranberries and gently stir into the mixture. Do not crush the berries.

7. Spoon in the remaining half of the flour mixture and stir to combine.

8. The mixture resembles clumps of cookie dough. Divide and spoon the batter into the paper liners.

9. Bake for 25 mins. Insert skewer to test.

10. Let cool in the muffin tins for 10 mins and remove to cool completely.