Pork ribs in Vietnamese pho

Hmmm, this is sort of a hybrid dish of the Bak Kut Teh and the Vietnamese Beef Pho. I had some leftover pork ribs but no Bak Kut Teh seasoning, I had some Vietnamese pho paste but no beef, so it was a no brainier, mix the two together and fingers crossed that it will taste right. Next, ransacked the larder, found some mushrooms, ransacked the fridge and found some lamb lettuce, in they go into the pot. Turns put, it's not too bad really, I had it with koay teow for lunch and then rice for dinner, works best with rice and some chilli padi, of course!

 

Corn cakes.

I've never had corn cakes before and these are my first so I really can't say if they taste right. What I can say though is that this is a great way to get my toddler to eat vegetables that have not been mashed into an unrecognisable form. In this version, I had chicken, red pepper and corn and as I write this I also realised that I had forgotten to add in basil when I cooked it! Nevertheless, the corn cakes still tasted fab!

 

Individual chicken pie

Individual chicken pie...this is my cheat recipe for days when I'm too tired to cook from scratch. Simply get hold of ready made puff pastry, a tin of cream of mushroom, frozen peas, carrots and chicken breast. With a quick flash in the pan to stir fry the chicken, leave to cool. While waiting, roll out the puff pastry and then add a little of each ingredient followed by 15 minutes in the oven...serve with a salad and you will end up with a simple meal cooked in no time and very little washing up..yay!

The cut open pie...

 

Assam Pedas Fish

I have made Assam Pedas fish a few times now, though the taste is passable, the fish is not. What I mean is I'm not used to the type of fish found in this region and is fast discovering the most of them don't cook well in curries, most disintegrate into the curry so I end up with fish flavoured curry rather than curry with pieces of fish in it! However, my search for the perfect fish to curry here seems to be over as the plaice that I used seemed to hold together pretty well and tastes quite similar to the ray or pari which goes really well with the assam sauce. This time round, I also have my daun kesom or Vietnamese coriander which makes it a truly fragrant dish...Yumms!

 

Blueberry Friand

Finally, I managed to test out the recipe for blueberry friands. It's from one of baking books and every time I flip through the pages to find something to bake, the image catches my eye and think to myself 'that looks so yummy' but somehow I never tried to bake it till now. It's a very rich and indulgent piece of cake and not for everyday eating! The taste was sublime but I think I need to work on the egg whites as the cake was not as airy as I expected....till much to learn with regards to beat egg whites till the right stage! But still a delicious bake.

 

Biskut Telinga (Yee Chai Peng)

I made these a few weeks ago but did not have the chance to blog it till now. Now, what exactly are these? Some call it ear biscuits and some call it hats due to its shape, this is one of the many traditional biscuits I used to enjoy as a kid. No Oreos or Famous Amos then but just good old hand crafted biscuits. Until I made these, I never knew or even questioned what was in them, now I know and now I can keep these biscuits going on for a little longer before they dissappear in time. My hat off to these tasty little morsels!

 

8 Plaited Loaf (Chollah)

Inspired by the latest episode of the great British bake-off, a baking contest for amateur bakers (for those of you not familiar with UK tv), I tried my hand at making the technical challenge which is the 8 plaited or braided loaf. Loaves with this type of braiding is also known as Chollah or Challah which is a special Jewish braided bread eaten on Sabbath and holidays.With instructions very like a knitting pattern, I think I managed a fairly passable plait, it would probably be shot down by the competition judge as rubbish looking but I'm rather proud of it! The recipe for the dough though was not the same as the one used in the show but a ThangZhong method bread recipe that I've used before.

 

 

The baked loaf, I used a milk wash rather than a egg wash



Cross section of the loaf, light and fluffy



Deep breath before attempting the twists

 

Second proof before baking

Hong Kong Chee Cheong Fun

I've never really eaten Hong Kong Chee Cheong Fun till I got here and went for Dim Sum with friends. Turns out, I rather fancy them and after a Dim Sum making session with the cooking club, I was bitten by the Dim Sum bug and decided to try making this dish. I have made koay teow previously and this looked rather similar, only problem was previously I had trouble keeping the thickness even as I seem to own a rather lopsided steamer! After some research, which basically means watching Utube videos (And getting side tracked by the videos leading into other things) I found one method where foil baking dishes were used by 'floating' them on boiling water in a wok. It worked out really well, result below. The filling for this cheong fun is a simple mix of spiring onions and dried prawns (no lap cheong at the shop).