Mushrooms en Papillote

En Papillote (French:  means "in paper") - refers to a quick, easy, healthy and delicious way of cooking where the food is enclosed in parchment paper or foil or even banana leaves, then baked in the oven.  The parcel holds in moisture to steam the food  in their own juices.

Ingredients:

60g button mushrooms
60g shimeji mushrooms
60g enoki mushrooms
60g king oyster mushrooms
50g butter, chopped
1 tbsp white wine
salt & pepper

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
• Cut a 40cm square of baking paper. Lay the paper on a stainless steel plate.
• Place mushrooms in the centre of the paper and drop pieces of butter all over the mushrooms.  Drizzle with white wine and season with salt and pepper.
• Fold the edges of the baking paper together to seal properly.
• Bake mushroom parcels for about 30 minutes or until mushrooms are tender.

 

Angel Food Cake

A wonderful recipe from Stephanie Jaworski.  This snowy white sponge cake was named Angel Food Cake because of its airy lightness that was said to be the "food of the angels." 

Ingredients:

125g sifted cake flour (I substituted with self-raising flour)
300g castor sugar (I reduced to 220g)
1½ cups egg whites
1 tsp cream of tartar
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract  (I omitted this)

• Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.
• In a large bowl, sift together 150g of sugar with flour. Set aside.
• In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until foamy.  Add cream of tartar, lemon juice and salt.  Continue to beat until soft peaks form.  Gradually beat in the remaining sugar until glossy stiff peaks form.  Beat in vanilla.
• Sift the flour mixture into the beaten egg whites and fold gently.  Do not over fold the batter or it will deflate.
• Pour the batter into a 25cm tube pan.  Bake for about 45 minutes.
• Immediately upon removing the cake from the oven, invert the pan.  
• Allow the cake to completely cool before removing the cake from the pan.

Black Sesame Glutinous Rice Balls ( 黑芝麻湯圓 )

Ingredients:

270g glutinous rice flour
200ml water (approx.)
100g black sesame seeds
50g walnuts
70g raw sugar
3 tbsp melted butter

To make black sesame paste:

• Lightly toast black sesame seeds and walnuts. Set aside to cool.
• In a food processor, grind the toasted sesame seeds and walnuts until fine.  Transfer into a mixing bowl and combine with sugar and melted butter to form a paste.  
• Divide the paste into 50 pieces and roll into balls.  Refrigerate.   

 To make dumpling (tang yuan) dough:

• Sift glutinous rice flour into a mixing bowl.  Add water and knead into a dough.
• Break a small piece of the dough and flatten into a round disc.  Cook it in boiling water and simmer until it floats to the surface.  Remove the dough and knead it back into the main dough when it is cool enough to handle.  This helps the tang yuan to be chewy and sticky.
• Divide dough into 50 pieces and roll into balls.  Cover with a damp kitchen towel to prevent from drying out.
• Fill each dough with sesame paste and seal properly.  Lightly roll into a ball using both palms.  Set aside on a tray.  *

To cook dumpling (tang yuan):

• Boil a big pot of water.
• Put dumplings into the boiling water.  Cook until they float to the surface. Cook for a further 1 minute.
• Scoop up the dumplings and transfer into hot ginger syrup.

To prepare ginger syrup:

•  Boil water with rock sugar and a couple of slices of ginger, some pandan leaves and 1 tsp osmanthus (optional).  Stir until sugar dissolves.

Note:   *  Tang yuan can be frozen and stored in a ziploc bag. 

Lime-Butter Cupcakes

Ingredients:  (Makes 13 in muffin cases) 


200g butter - softened
180g caster sugar
200g self-raising flour 
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
5 eggs, at room temperature - separated
1/2 cup coconut cream + lime juice
zest of 2 limes



Method:

• Preheat oven to 150 - 160 degrees C. 
• With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy.
• Beat in egg yolks, one at a time and make sure that each egg is completely incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl before adding the next one.
• Fold in flour alternately with the coconut cream mixture, beginning and ending with the flour. Stir until just combined and the batter is smooth.
• Beat egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until soft peaks form.
• With a rubber spatula, gently fold about a third of the beaten egg whites into the batter to lighten it; then fold in the remaining whites until just combined. Do not over mix.
• Pour batter into muffin cases.
  
• Bake for about 25 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake.

Thousand Layer Pork Belly ( 梅菜扣肉 )

Luke Nguyen cooks this Chinese classic dish - Thousand Layer Pork in one of the episodes of Luke Nguyen’s Greater Mekong.    This dish is also known as "Mui Choy Khow Yoke. 

Ingredients:

800g pork belly
250g preserved mustard greens ("mui choy")
2 tbsp oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp light soy
1 tsp dark soy
hot water

Marinade: (mix all together)
3 tbsp light soy
1 tbsp thick caramel sauce (dark soy)
3 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp minced ginger
2 tbsp grated palm sugar
1 tsp pepper

• Marinate pork belly and leave it in the fridge, covered, for at least 1 hour (I marinated mine overnight).
• Soak preserved mustard greens for half an hour. Rinse and squeeze out the water.  Slice finely. 
• With a tablespoon of oil, saute garlic until aromatic.  Put in the preserved mustard greens and fry for about a minute.  Add in water, dark soy and light soy and bring it to the boil.  Then simmer for about 10 - 15 minutes under low heat. Set aside.
• Remove the pork from marinade and brush off the garlic and ginger from its surface.  Reserve the marinade.
• Heat a frying pan and add a tablespoon of oil.  Place the pork belly, skin-side down and fry until brown.  Turn over and brown the other side.
• Pour hot water into the pan, just enough to cover the pork.  Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.
• Remove the pork from the pan and cool before placing in the freezer, covered, for 1 hour. (I left mine in the fridge overnight)
• Slice the pork as thinly as possible (I sliced the pork into 5mm thick).
• Place the pork pieces into a bowl, skin-side down.  Top the pork with the preserved mustard greens.  Pour over the reserved marinade.
• Steam pork, covered, for about 1.5 hours or until soft.

Apple-Rhubarb Crumble

Ingredients:   (Serves 5)                                               

4 stalks rhubarb, cut into about 4 cm length

3 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and sliced

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 tbsp orange juice

Crumble:   

120g plain four

1/2 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)

100g butter, cut into small pieces

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup dessicated coconut

1 tsp mixed spice

 

• Cook rhubarb with orange juice and brown sugar until softened.  This will take about 15 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 170 deg C.
• Lightly greased ramekins with melted butter.  
• To make crumble:  Combine plain flour and brown sugar in a mixing bowl.  Using your fingertips, rub in the butter until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.  Add in the rest of the ingredients. Refrigerate until required.
• Spoon rhubarb into ramekins and top with sliced apple.  
• Sprinkle crumble mixture over the rhubarb and apple and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes or until the crumble is golden brown.  
• Serve warm with cream or vanilla ice-cream.

Spiral Curry Puffs

Ingredients:

Fillings:
350g potatoes, cubed
2 big onions, cubed
4 tbsp curry paste (A1 brand)
curry leaves
salt and sugar to taste

• With 2 tbsp oil, fry onion until softened.  
• Then add in curry paste and curry leaves and potatoes.  Fry for a minute.  Add in water and simmer until potatoes are soft.  Season with salt and sugar.
• Cook until dry.  
• Dish out and set aside to cool.  

(A)  Water dough pastry:
400g plain flour
2 tbsp rice flour
200ml water
3 tbsp cooking oil
40g butter
1 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 egg white

• Using a dough hook, knead all the ingredients together until it forms a soft dough.  
• Cover dough and set aside to rest for about 30 minutes. 

(B)  Oil dough pastry:
200g plain flour
1 tbsp rice flour
100g shortening

• Put flour in a mixing bowl.
• Rub chilled chopped butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.  Knead until a smooth dough is formed.
• Cover dough and set aside.

To form spiral pastry:

• Flatten water dough (A).
• Wrap oil dough (B) inside the water dough and roll out into a rectangular shape on a floured surface.
• Fold a third of the pastry into the centre, then fold the bottom third up over that.  Turn the dough 90 degrees and roll out again.  Repeat folding, rolling and turning twice more.  
• Then roll the dough into a long spiral rope (like a swiss roll) and let rest for about 20 minutes.
• Using a knife, cut the dough into 24 pieces (50g each)

To make the puffs:

• Use a rolling pin, roll out each disc
• Fill with fillings and crimp the edge.
• Heat enough oil in a wok/pan.  Deep fry the curry puffs over medium-high heat until golden brown.