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!