Pan-fired Vermicelli

Vermicelli is a popular dish in Asia. It is very dedicated and thin that it is always challenging to  pan-fired.

This is not the first time for me to pan-fired or I should say stir-fired Vermicelli, but every time when I make this dish, I still worry the result will not turn out good.

After many attempts of cooking Vermicelli, I have concluded one main tip in making this stir-fired Vermicelli. It is to have Vermicelli stay as moist as possible. Having said that, water is constantly added in my recipe instead of adding oil.

Unlike making other stir-fired noodles, oils is added to avoid Vermicelli sticking on the firing pan happening.
For making Vermicelli, water is needed to avoid noodles sticking on the pan and this is always the main reason why it is so easy to turn the bundle of noodle into a bundle of burnt rice patties.

Here is the steps:

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

Vermicelli                                2 bundles
Shredded carrot                       1 C
Shredded cucumber                 1C
Ham/ chicken ( cut in strips)   1C
Soy sauce                                 1 Tbp
Salt                                           1 tsp
Pepper                                      1tsp
Olive oil                                   1 Tbsp

Instructions:


1) Boiled a pot of water, put Vermicelli Bundles in the pot for 2 minutes, while constantly lossen  Vermicelli.

2) Poured water out of the pot, and drained Vermicelli quickly using a strainer.

3) In a wok or frying pan, put 2 tablespoon of water in the pan, then put soften Vermicelli in the pan, in this step do not add oil. Using chopsticks to loose and Vermicelli in pan for 2 one minute.

4) Added in shredded vegetable and ham, mixed well with chopstick. Cooked for 2 minutes,

5) Added condiments, salt, pepper and olive oil.

6) Added Soy sauce, and made sure Vermicelli is well mixed with the soy sauce.


* Trick- do not add oil before adding Vermicelli. If  Vermicelli sticks to pan, add water.

Tips using piping bag

       We often get to use piping bag to create beautiful looks of baked goods, or to garnish. However, it might be a bit of the pain when it comes to choose and use a piping bag or piping tip. So, is a piping bag easier to be manipulated than a piping tube? Personally, I have not used a piping tube before; for a personal reason, I have relatively small hands, so I thought that using a piping bag would be more adjustable for me to have control in creating shapes and details.  I must admit that using a piping tube is easier for cleaning; and can be re-used, however, I have found a way to use a piping bag while it allows minimum cleaning.

       Besides of a good (durable) piping bag and a piping tip, we will need a piece of plastic wrap.

       Instead of directly scooping batter mixture into the piping bag, place dough in the centre of the plastic wrap. To ease putting dough into piping bag, try to create a shape of the cone cylinder. Now, place the piping tip on the tip of dough you just created. Close two sides of wrap by folding over toward centre, and twist the other two ends as if you are wrapping a candy, leaving two strands of twisted wrapping ends on two  ends. Pipping tip should be at one of the twisted ends. After all these work, you should have something like this:

         Try to squeeze out bubbles and air when twisting. Now, you can put the whole wrapped dough with the tip in the piping bag. Cut the tips of the bag according to fit the size of the piping tip. Having the piping tip pointing to the tip of the bag, gently pull the twisted strands through the hole until the half of the piping tip get pulled out of the hole. Now, gently unwrapped the twisted plastic wrap end which just been pulled through the hole. Then your piping bag should be ready.

          When you are done with your piping, you can depose your plastic wrap instead of the whole piping bag!

Butter cookies

Prep Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 15-20 minus

Ingredients

Butter,  room temperature     250g

Icing sugar                               100g

Egg                                             2

All purpose flour                      350g

Chocolate (for decorating)    150g

Instruction

1) Preheat Oven to 350F.
2) In a bowl, using an electrical mixer to cream soft butter and sugar until well combined.
3) Sifted in flour, mixed well. Beat in egg one at a time, mixed well.
4) Assembled piping bag and piping tip. Put dough in a piping bag.
5) Placed baking paper on a baking pan, piped a straight line/ rose shape or  dots to create patterns.
6) Baked for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
7) Removed cookies from baking pan, let cool for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, get prepared to melt  chocolate.
8) Using a double boiler methods to melt chopped chocolate until it reached liquid consistency.
9) Two methods to decorate: a) dipped cookies in chocolate batter or used a spoon to pour chocolate on top of cookies. b) Used a piping bag to create thin chocolate lines or patterns on cookies, using a piping bag can create chocolate drizzle very nicely.
10) If you wish to decorate cookies with  chocolate, make sure to do it before chocolate cools down, I would finish chocolate coating/ dipping in a small batch, and then sprinkle some granola, almond slices ( it can be anything, such as marshmallow etc.) on top, before coating chocolate on second batch of cookie.
11) Dusted icing sugar on surface if you wanted
12) Ready to serve!

Chocolate munchies

Super Easy Treat. It only takes as little as 10 minutes to make!

Ingredients: 

Chocolate waffer     handful

Dried fruit               handful

Granola                   handful

Direction

1) Using double boiling methods (Click here for method) to melt chocolate

2) Poured mixture in a piping bag or a ziploc plastic storage bag, cut one corner to create a hole

3) Placed a baking sheet on a baking pan, gently pipe/ squeeze chocolate mixture onto baking sheet.

4) Created any shape you like on the sheet. 

5) Sprinkle dried fruit and granola on top*

* It doesn't take long to cool down chocolate mixture, be sure to sprinkle dried fruit and granola before it gets hard, so that they will stick onto chocolate. Used a fork or dried  fruit touch gently to test if chocolate has been hardens.

6) Chocolate should be harden within 10 minutes, removed from baking sheet by gently peel off baking sheet. 

* Avoid placing chocolate under sun or on hot surface

Nutella Swirl Pound Cake

I have been trying to clean out my fridge, and noticing that I have quite a lot of fat ingredients sitting  in the fridge. Since I have a jar of Nutella left, I thought I would add some in today's recipe.


It is a quick bread recipe, it is very easy and fast to make. Combine all ingredients together, mix well then it is done!



Here is the ingredients you need:


Butter (placed in room temp.)     3 Tbsp/ 50g
Cream Cheese (room temp.)       1/2 C,  100g
Sugar                                           3 Tbsp / 50g
Egg                                               2
Cake Flour                                   1 C/ 120g
Baking Powder                            1/2 tsp
Milk                                             1 Tbsp
Vanilla Extract                            1 tsp
Nutella                                         2 Tbsp


Instruction:

1) Pre-heat oven to 360F
2) Cut baking sheet place for a baking pan for the size of 4" x 11"
3) In a bowl, using an electrical mixer to beat cream cheese and butter which is placed in room temperature for at least 20 minutes until well mixed
4) Beat in sugar.
5) In another bowl, beat 2 eggs
6) Slowly beat in beaten eggs in 3 portion into the batter, mix well before adding another portion of egg mixture
7) Using sifter to shift flour into batter, mix until well blended
8) Add is baking powder and vanilla extract, mix well
9) Once your mixture is ready, spoon 1/3 of batter into another bowl, mix nutella until cooperated
10) Now you have 2 colour of better, pour nutella batter on top of the original batter, using a spatula to cut through batter using a "8" motion. (as if you are writing the number 8 when mixing the batter)
11) Slowly and gently mix using the 8 motion for about 8 times
12) Pour batter into pan, gently smoothen the surface
13)To create a pattern on surface, use a toothpick/ skewers or chopstick and dip in nutella, gently draw lines across the surface of the batter
14) Using another clean toothpick, ( not dipping in nutella this time) draw across the surface in an opposite direction. (if you draw your line with nutella across horizontally, you need to draw across with a clean toothpick from the top to bottom)
15) Bake for 30 minutes or until insert comes out clean

 

Rice Kirspy Chocolate Bar

Here is a simple idea of foodie gift. Fast and Easy. Great for a thank you gift, bride gift or a "sorry" gift.

 Ingredients:

~handful of chocolate wafer melt ( melting chocolate)
    I get my chocolate wafer at bulk barn, which is a franchise snack/ baking store store in Ontario. I get as much as you want in a bag and purchase it by weight.

~ handful of rice crispy

Instruction:

~ Pick out a chocolate mold, ( I have used an ice cube mold, baking pan, pretty much anything that can hold liquid, but keep in mind that, to narrower the container, the better.)

~ Using double boiler methods to melt chocolate, be careful not to mix chocolate with water.
  ( I used microwave does the melting, make sure to mix chocolate content every 20 seconds)

~ Pour a layer of chocolate on the bottom of the mold, and sprinkle a rice crispy on top, spread evenly.

~ Cover with plastic wrap, put in freezer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare next batch of melting chocolate, if you want to do a different colour layer.

~ Take chocolate bar out of the fridge, pour next chocolate layer on top, smooth surface with spatula or a spoon. Put chocolate back to fridge for another 10 minutes

~ Used leftover chocolate mixture to create chocolate garnish on top, put chocolate mixture into a piping bag, and create any garnish you want. 

Flowers Framing

 

Photo Frames – Coles   $ 2.50 (on sale for 75%)

Letter Cards –Michaels $ 2 for a pack of 10 cards

Flowers can only last so long. I thought I would keep these flowers a little longer by framing  pieces of valves.

Frame valves when they are in their best shape. Place a hard cardboard and hard cover as a background for support. I used a letter card in mine.

 This could be a thoughtful gift to anyone, and to add personalities , you could write messages on spare space on the card

Meringue Minis Cookies

 

Looking for cookie recipe that does not call for flour?

This recipe might be what you are looking for!

 

Meringue cookies are usually made up of Egg white and Sugar only, according personal preference, you may add your favourite ingredients to enrich the flavour, taste and texture.

 

This recipe is easy and simple, it doesn't require many cooking utensils; as long as you have an electrical mixer, you are good to start!

 

 

 

 

 

 Time: 25 minutes + baking time (30 to 45 minutes)

 

Serving: 12  6-inches cookies  or 3 cups of mini cookies

 

 

Ingredients:

 

Egg White             2

Icing Sugar           1/2 C

 

 

 

Instruction:

 

1) Preheat oven to 280 F

2) Separate egg white and egg yolk

3) Using an electrical mixer, beat egg white until foamy - soft peak ( about 2 minutes)

4) Sparkle icing sugar no more than 1 Tbsp at a time into egg white foam. Keep beating until all sugar is used

5) Stop beating when egg white foam can hold its shape. (Using a spoon to scoope foam, and see if its consistency is still runny ( water-liked); if so, beat till foam is stiff or hold shape)

6) Using a piping bag* to create cookie shape, or simple spoon egg white foam and drop on ungreased cookie sheet.

7) Bake for 30 to 45 minutes depends on size of cookie, if surface of cookie becomes hard, take out from oven and let cool.

8) Enjoy.



 

 

 

*Tips: No piping bag? Simply use a plastic storage bag such as Ziploc bag or those clear bags you get from the bulk barn store work too!  Scoop spoonful of mixture and put in one corner of the bag, cut  corner of the bag to create a hole. It is just that simple.

 

 

Easter addition: Bunny Cream Cheese Cupcake

    Since I have some cream cheese leftover, I thought I would try baking cream cheese cupcake. One thing that I noticed between a yellow (butter) cake than a cream cheese cupcake is that the latter gives a denser texture, but yet moist. Cream cheese cake gives more flavour and amour as well. The cream cheese I used in this recipe was plain cream cheese.  It would be an interesting experiment using flavoured cream cheese such as strawberry cream cheese in this recipe.

 

Time: 30 minutes + baking time

Servings:    8 cupcakes

 

Ingredients:

Butter                          90 g / 6 Tbsp

Plain Cream Cheese  90g   / 6 Tbsp
Icing Sugar                  2/3 C
Vanilla Extract            2 tsp
Egg                               2
Self-Rising Flour         1/8 C
All-purpose Flour      ½ C

Instructions:

1)      Pre-heat oven to 350 F, prepare muffin pan with greased muffin paper cup

2)      In a big bowl, mix butter, cream cheese, egg, vanilla extract and icing sugar, using electrical mixer, beat until fluffy.

3)      Add flour into mixture, blend well

4)      Pour spoonful mixture into each cups

5)      Bake till golden brown or when insert come out clean

 

Variation:

Add chocolate chips, shredded coconut into mixture before adding flour for personal preference.



 

No pan-fry Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Serve 1      Cooking time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

1 Piece of White Bread   +   1 Slice of Processed Cheddar Cheeses

Instruction:

1) Toasted bread in toaster for 1 minute or until surface has been grilled crispy

2) Used a knife, pick an edge, gently slice between bread to create pocket/ opening on a side of the bread

3) Put in slice of cheese in the pocket, cut size if needed

4) Toasted bread for 2 minutes or until golden brown with opening facing up

5) Served hot, enjoy!

Thin crispy crust with melting cheese :)



Pink Lady Strawberry Cake

Ingredients:

Pastry cake flour               1.5 C
Sugar                                 1 C
Baking powder                 1.5 tsp
Salt                                    pinch
Butter  (soften)                  1/2 C
Strawberry                        1/2 C
Egg white                          1.5
Milk                                  2 Tbsp



Instruction:

1) Pre heat oven to 350F
2) In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking power and salt.
3) Pureed strawberry using blender or a fork to mash strawberry to finest.
4) Incorporated butter into flour mixture.
5) Poured strawberry puree in to mixture, using mixer to blend mixture until fluffy ( for about 3 - 4 mins)
6) Separated egg yolk from egg whites, whisked egg whisk and milk until it is well blended
7) Add half egg white mixture into batter, mix until well blended,  add the rest of egg white mixture and mix until well blended
8) Prepared baking pan with baking sheet placed on bottom, poured batter in pan, baked for 20 minutes or until insert comes out clean

Cheesecake Brownie

Cheesecake Brownie

Serve 12,  Preparation : 45 times

Ingredients:

Brownie:
 Butter (soften)                3/4 Cup or 125 g
 Eating Chocolate            150 g
 Egg                                1
 Icing Sugar                     2/3 C
 All Purpose Flour           3/4 C   or 110 g
 Self-rising Flour              1/4 C   or  35 g

Cheesecake:

Cream Cheese (soften)    250 g
Vanilla Extract                 1 tsp
Icing sugar                       1/3 C
Egg                                  1
Cream                             1/2 C


Instructions:

1) Pre-heat oven to 180 C. Greased a 12 -inches round baking pan or a 19 cm square pan, placed baking paper on the sides and base of the pan, extending baking paper 5 cm above to cover sides of the pan.

2) Chopped butter and chocolate into small pieces. Prepared a double boiler (See recipe for an alternative method: click here) . Melted butter and chocolate using double boiler method. Stir until smooth.

3) In a big bowl, mix egg and icing sugar using a mixer, creamed until thick and smooth.

4) Poured chocolate mixture and shifted flour ( self-rising and all purpose flour) into egg mixture. Mixed until combine.

5) Poured mixture into pan, baked for 10 minutes.

6) In a bowl, cream cream cheese until smooth using electrical mixer.

7) Added in vanilla extract, icing sugar and egg. Mixed well.

8) Added cream, mixed well.

9) When brownie was done, pour cheesecake mixture  on top of brownie evenly. Baked for 15 minutes.

10) Let cheesecake brownie cool down in room temperature for 30 minutes , refrigerated for 1 hour.

11) Recipe best served with whipped cream or fresh fruit.

Quick Bread: Scones in Muffin Pan

Quick bread:

Basic recipe for Scone

Make 12 Scones

Ingredients:

Self-raising flour     2 C
Plain flour              1/2 C
Sugar                    3/4 C
Butter                   1/4 C / 100g
Egg, beaten           1
Milk                      1 C

 

Instructions:

1)      Preheat oven to 350 F

2)      In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients, flours and sugar

3)      Use a fork to mash/ cut soften butter to little pieces.

4)      Using a spatula, cooperate  butter in the flour mixture,

5)      Pour milk, beaten egg, mix until ingredients well combined

6)      Drop a spoonful of mixture in each muffin baking liner/ sheet

7)      Bake until golden brown

Variations:

·         Plum Scone: place sliced plum on top of each muffin

·         Chocolate scone: mix in 1/4 Cup chocolate chip in mixture after other ingredients are combined

Tips: 
> To soften butter in a short period of time, microwave butter for approx. 10 seconds for this amount of (1/4 C) butter. Do not over heat, or butter will melt to liquid
> Scones server best when just baked out of the oven, to help maintain the moist in scones when keeping over night, put a piece of bread on top of scones.

Blueberry Yogurt Loaf

Have left-over yogurt? or want to use up the fresh berries before it goes bad?

This recipe takes only 10 minutes to prepare. A great nutritious option for breakfast and snack; and it helps "cleaning out my fridge" too. It is also a great idea to use those sour blueberries you got in this recipe, the sour taste will blend in with the cake, it actually tastes and smells flavorful, and personally thinks that it has no difference from using the sweet, ripened blueberries.

I found the yogurt in this recipe gives a firm texture and month-feel, unlike the regular cake recipes they have a lighter and fluffier texture. 

Serves 8

Ingredients:

All purpose flour    1 C 

Baking powder      1/2 tsp

Baking soda          1/2 tsp

Salt                       1/4 tsp

White sugar           2/3 C

Butter (soften)       4 Tbsp

Egg                        1

Plain/ Greek yogurt 1/4 C

Milk                       1/4 C

Blueberry               1/2 C      

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven at 400F

2) In a bowl, mixed flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3) In a large bowl, using mixer or a spatula to cream butter until smooth, than add sugar and mix well.

4) Add yogurt and egg into butter mixture.

5) Add half of flour mixture in butter mixture and mix well using mixer or spatula, pour milk and mix, and add the rest of the flour. Mix in blueberry at last.

6) Spray baking pan with oil or place a baking sheet on pan, pour batter in pan, spread mixture evenly in pan. Put in oven for approx. 25 minutes or until golden brown.

7) Serve hot, or keep in fridge for max. 2 days

Oil Painting 2013

My second oil painting is finally done. I always think that once you start a painting, it is very hard to finish it. If I want, I can keep on painting and adding fine details. This is maybe the reason why painting would always take long to finish. It is not a like doing a math question, once you get the answer, it is done. To me, painting  does not have an ending, you can keep on adding, and painting, and it will just keep on changing, changing the theme of your art work, the look of you art work. Painting rather is a process to me.  It is up to the painter whether he wanted to stop or continue.

 I have never taken any advanced art course, I somehow picked up a pencil, a brush and looked at an object, then I started to draw.   I love admiring art works, it gives me peace and smoothen my temper.

I am hoping to paint once a year, it will be interesting to look back in the future at  all the paintings I did over the years.

Vanilla butter cream icing

   

Make approx 1 cup icing

Ingredients:

Butter       3 Tbsp / 45mL

Icing sugar    ¾ C  or white  sugar    1 C

Vanilla extract      1 tsp

Milk           1tsp  / 5mL

  

Directions:

1.       Soften butter by placing butter in room temperature for at least 15 mins or till it reaches room temperature

2.       In a big bowl, use a spatula/ electrical mixer to cream butter until fluffy and smooth.

3.       Add in vanilla extract, milk and icing sugar, cream mixture until well mixed.

4.       Chill in refrigerator for 10 mins to thicken mixture.

     5. Store remaining icing in refrigerator for later use, soften icing for 5 mins in room temp. before use. 

Valentine Selection: Creamy Cookie Cranberry Chocolate Bar

Make 2 chocolate bars

 Ingredients:

White melting chocolate/ white chocolate wafer                       2 Cup

Milk/ Dark chocolate wafer ( for drizzles/ garnish on top)      1 Tbsp

Oreo cookies                                                                                             2 cookies

Rice Krispy                                                                                                 ¼ Cup / 4 Tbsp

Dried Cranberry                                                                                       2 Tbsp

Mini Marshmallow                                                                                  20 -25

Directions:

1.       Decide on the shape / size of the chocolate you  want to have. If  you do not have a chocolate mold, simple use any baking pan.

Pick a pan that  can  hold the amount of your recipes you are going to made. If you are making  only 1 chocolate bar, use a small baking pan approx. 4” x 10”.

2.       Spray chocolate mold with a very thin layer of oil or butter. If using baking pan, trace a pan on top of a parchment sheet (baking paper) or wax paper, and place it in the bottom of pan.

3.       Using a knife to scrape off cream in oreo cookies. Put oreo cookies in a food plastic bag ( Ziploc bag).  Use rolling pin to break cookies to crumbles. Set aside.

4.       Using double boiler methods to melt white chocolate wafer. If you do not have a double boiler like me, please follow the next step.

5.        Boil 2 cups of water, pour in the a shallow container or bowl or a pan. Place a tall bowl or plate ( preferably a metal/ steel ware – help in heat transfer from hot water to melt chocolate.)  it is important to have a bowl that are taller than the bowl containing the hot water, preventing water mixing in with the chocolate.

6.       Stir chocolate till melted.  Add it cookie crumbles. Mix well.

7.       Pour half chocolate mixture into prepared pan. Spread evenly making a thinly layer of chocolate base.

8.       Add in rice Krispy, use spoon to press rice Krispy in the chocolate mixture.

9.       Pour in rest of the chocolate mixture on top. Spread well.

10.   Drop in dried cranberries and marshmallow.

11.   Use same method in step 1 and 2 to melt milk chocolate.  ( In this case, since it is only a small amount of chocolate, it would be safe to use microwave to melt chocolate wafer. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir every 15 seconds, re heat for 15 sec if mixture is not smooth/ not melted well enough.

12.   Put melted chocolate in another food plastic bag ( right in a bottom corner). Cut a tiny hole at corner, squeeze and decorate chocolate on surface with drizzle.

13.   Sit in room temperature until set or put in freezer for 10 minutes. ( Do not over freeze)

14.   Turn over pan to take out chocolate bars.

15.   Run a big knife under hot water for 10  seconds, dried. Cut chocolate into desired size. Repeat this step if needed. The heat  helps cutting chocolate easily.