Dumpling wrapper

Beef Dumpling

My dumpling fascination has come to a new level, I like freshly made dumpling wrapper or dumpling skin. It tastes so much better than the ready-made ones. I have the almost transparent dumpling skin recipe from a magazine, but it is not working!! The dough was way too gooey and there is no way I can knead it. Either the food writer is not the cook himself/herself or there might be some misinterpretation from Chinese to English version of the recipe. Although the recipe is written in English and Chinese, there might have been errors in between. Or maybe the some people are just not generous to share the right recipe.

Hence, its time to experiment again!

This experiment is just like playing play-doh.. I feel like a kid in the kitchen. I had this silky white dough as in pristine white. Quite happy with it, at least if my dumpling skin fail, I had fun!

Objective: to make transparent dumpling skin

The result of my dumpling skin is a little bit transparent, but not transparent enough as I wanted it to be. I realized that it is the tapioca starch which is making it transparent; so next time, I will decrease the amount of cornstarch

Posting this experiment for my record, so that I could come back and from time to time and check where did I went wrong and avoid having the same mistake again.

Filling

¼ kg. Minced beef

1 cup shredded cabbage

1 Tablespoon flour

Salt

Dumpling skin
1 cup corn starch
1 cup tapioca starch
1 tspt salt
1 Tablespoon shortening
1 cup boiling water

Procedure:

Filling: Mix the ingredients altogether and pulse for 2 minutes using a blender or food processor until the mixture is fine and well combined.

Dumpling Skin:
In a mixing bowl, put corn starch, tapioca starch and salt, add boiling water slowly while mixing with chopstick or with the wooden spoon handle, continue mixing until the starches come altogether forming a dough.

Set it aside until the mixture is cool enough to handle.

Bring mixture altogether while still warm and knead adding the shortening by portion until well combined. Dough becomes silky white and elastic.

Shape the dough like a log, roll it making longer until about 1 inch in diameter.

Cut the dough into small portions and roll it with the hand; achieving a marble size dough.

In a slightly floured surface, flatten the dough as much as you can with a small rolling pin. Separate each skin with a sprinkle of flour.

Wrap : To wrap the dumpling, put a teaspoon in each skin and seal the skin by pressing the edges creating pleats.

Cook: Steam the dumplings for 15 minutes in a bamboo steamer.

Make the Sauce: Mix soy sauce, lemon and few drops of sesame oil.

Serve Hot with soy sauce.

conclusion: lessen the amount of cornstarch next time.
texture: a little bit stretchy when cooked.
taste: good, but it can be better

Grilled Fish with Garlic Fried rice

Simple food is the best. Fresh fish grilled to perfection; juicy in the inside, that's how I like my fish to be. Tender and Juicy. I'm not a big fan of overcooked fish but my cousin is. He likes fish fried or grilled until almost crispy, I find it overcooked and dry and all the goodness had gone.

This is really quick, simple and straight forward dish. Preheat the pan (don't put oil in it) Season the fish with salt and pepper, oil the fish (not the pan) and straight to the preheated pan. Pan grill 5 minutes on each side. Here, I served it with GARLIC FRIED RICE, other option would be plain rice or ARROZ BRANCO.

Chocolate Cappuccino Cake

This post is long way overdue. I made this for hubby’s birthday last week, along with the PORK TERRINE. But, I count on the saying "better late than never". I just don’t have the time to compose this post until now.

Well, this cake may seem complicated when you look at the recipe but if you had been making cakes before, things become simpler. I love the flavor, its mild and creamy with the bitterness of coffee and chocolate that melts the mouth with a sip of coffee, ohh so heavenly.

If you are a coffee lover, there is no reason why you wont like this with your favorite cup of coffee. I’ve bookmarked this in the recipe book waiting to be done for quite a long time. Just waiting for an occasion. Birthday calls for a cake; what is birthday without a birthday cake after all? Source of the recipe is my book which I had for quite a long time and I just flip the pages when I’m looking for some inspiration when there is an upcoming occasion. The book “Cakes and Cake Decorating” by Angela Nilsen, Sarah Maxwell and Janice Murfitt. Below is the recipe that I have copied from the book for this post, but I didn’t follow everything as I have to consider the portion for just the 2 of us. I used a circular pan and cut in half and layered it. If you are wondering why the cake is just half the circle, its because I’m limiting the portion. I don’t want to have big extra cake sitting in the fridge after because I’m sure I will keep on coming back and have a slice and this cake is rich and creamy with lots of goodness… too good for my belly, that is. (winks)

Another alteration for this recipe, I don’t have coffee liqueur, so I just used coffee powder instead. Any coffee powder will do, not necessarily espresso powder.

Chocolate Cappuccino Cake

Ingredients:

175g plain chocolate, chopped
2 tsp instant espresso powder; dissolved in 3 Tbsp boiling water
3 eggs, separated
2/3 cup sugar
Pinch of cream of tartar

Cocoa powder

For the coffee cream filling:

¾ cup whipping cream
2 Tbsp sugar
1 cup mascarpone or cream cheese; softened
2 Tbsp. coffee flavor liqueur
25 g. plain chocolate, grated

For the Coffee Buttercream:

3 egg yolks; at room temperature
5 Tbsp. Light golden syrup
¼ cup sugar
1 cup butter, cut into small pieces and softened
1 Tbsp. instant espresso powder dissolved in 2 Tbsp boiling water
2 Tbsp. coffee flavor liqueur

Procedure:

Make the Cake:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C / 350 degrees F/ gas 4.

Grease a 40 x 27 cm baking tray. Line with baking parchment. Grease the parchment.

In the top of a double boiler, over a low heat, heat the chocolate and dissolved coffee powder until melted and smooth, stirring frequently. Set aside.

In a bowl with an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks and sugar for 3-5 minutes, until thick and light colored. Reduce speed to low and beat the chocolate mixture until blended.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer with cleaned beaters, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks begin to form. Do not overbeat. Stir a spoonful of whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, and then fold in the remaining whites.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin, spreading into the corners and smoothing the top evenly. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the cake springs back when touched lightly with a fingertip. Sprinkle a clean dish towel with cocoa powder to cover and turn the cake out on to the towel. Peel off the paper and cool.

Prepare the filling:

In a medium bowl with an electric mixer, whip the cream and sugar until soft peaks form. In another bowl, beat the mascarpone or cream cheese and liqueur until light and smooth. Stir in the grated chocolate and fold in the whipped cream. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Prepare the Buttercream:

In a bowl with an electric mixer on high speed, beat the yolks for 5-6 minutes until thick and pale in color. In a saucepan over medium heat, cook the syrup and sugar until the mixture boils, stirring constantly.

With the mixer on medium-low speed, slowly pour the hot syrup over the beaten yolks in a slow stream. Continue beating until the mixture feels cool, 5-6 minutes. Beat in the dissolved coffee and liqueur. Refrigerate until ready to use, but bring to room temperature before spreading.

Assemble the Cake:

With a serrated knife, trim off any crisp edges of the cake. Cut the cake crosswise into three equal parts. Place one cake on a cake plate and spread with half of the coffee cream filling. Cover with a second cake and the remaining filling. Top with the last cake.

Spoon about one third of coffee butter cream into a small piping bag fitted with a small star nozzle. Spread the remaining buttercream on top and sides of the cake. Pipe this around the cake with the design. Refrigerate cake until ready to serve. Allow to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.

Apple Pie

What’s the difference between a pie and a tart? These two pastry dishes always confused me. I didn’t know until just recently that I have to be specific what to call my dish, tart or pie? For the benefit of those who are still confused until now, the difference between these two pastry dishes is that the other is covered with pastry or “pastry crust” and the other is uncovered.

As per Wikipedia’s definition:

A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough shell that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or savory ingredients. Pies can be either "filled", where a dish is covered by pastry and the filling is placed on top of that, "top-crust," where the filling is placed in a dish and covered with a pastry/potato mash top before baking, or "two-crust," with the filling completely enclosed in the pastry shell. Pies can be a variety of sizes, ranging from bite-size to ones designed for multiple servings.

A tart is a pastry dish, usually sweet, that is a type of pie with an open top that is not covered with pastry.

Now, it is clear to me that I’m making a pie. This apple pie is simpler than what I have made before, the FRENCH APPLE TART, though I am using the same sweet pastry recipe I just doubled the quantity of ingredients so that I can make the “pastry crust”, which it turned out to be thicker than I thought. The base pastry shell was perfect but the covering pastry or pastry crust was a little bit thick because it was ripped and I tried to patch the cracks as a result, it thickened. To make things worst, these patched cracks had become rough; instead, it should be smooth. My quick remedy is to sprinkle some nuts on it so it wouldn’t be visible. I found a pack of crushed almonds in my pantry and sprinkled it on top of the crust. I’m so pleased to see the cracks have magically invisible and it added a different texture and flavor to it.

Unlike the French Apple tart, I didn’t make a pastry cream; instead, the apples were boiled with sugar for a few minutes and drained. The filling is just as simple as that.

Another alteration I made was instead of using butter or margarine, I used shortening which is vegetable based so we wont end up feeling guilty of cholesterol after having a slice or two. It worked quite well, in fact it tastes lighter, yet the crust is still crunchy and crumbly. From now on, I’ll use shortening instead of butter or margarine. It works just the same, its just the absence of richer taste that the butter has, but I don’t mind to opt for a healthier one.

Ingredients:

Filling:

6 Green Apples
½ cup sugar
500 ml water
1 Cinnamon stick
2 tsp.Cinnamon powder

Sweet Pastry Dough:
1 Cup and 2 Tbsp. shortening
1 cup icing sugar (sifted)
2 egg
5 Cups All Purpose Flour
¼ tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla essence

1 egg for eggwash

Make the Sweet Pastry Dough:
In a mixing bowl, mix shortening and icing sugar until creamy, add eggs and mix for another minute until soft and creamy.

Add flour and baking powder. Continue beating.

Add vanilla essence

Bring the mixture altogether to form a dough and mix with the hand. Form the dough into a ball, Cover with Cling film and refrigerate for an hour.

Prepare the filling:

Core apples and slice thinly, using a mandolin is very convenient and fast. Place in a sauce pan, add sugar and water, add the cinnamon stick and bring to a boil and simmer for about 3 minutes. Drain in a colander to get rid of excess water. Cool to room temperature.

Assemble the Pie:

Preheat oven to 250 degrees C.

In a flat working surface, divide the dough into two, one is 2/3 and the other 1/3. the bigger one is for the base shell and the other is for the covering crust. Roll out the dough, which has rested for an hour in the fridge, with a rolling pin. Flatten the dough forming a circle place it onto the pie pan. Press the sides of the dough to form the patterns of the pan.

Arrange the apples which have cooled down to the base of the pastry evenly and sprinkle cinnamon powder. Avoid empty spaces in between and press them a little bit after each addition to make it compact.

To complete the pie, cover with the covering crust, and brush with the egg wash. Sprinkle crushed almonds on top. Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden brown.

Lessons of the Square Water Melon

This is such a great read that I stumbled upon on the net and I can't just let it pass without passing it on. I've read it from Hard Knox Life on his post Lessons of the Square Water Melon . Quoted his post below. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

"One of my best friends passed along a story that is a great reminder of the power of creativity and innovation. The story revolves around the growing of square watermelons in Japan (a confirmed true story from Snopes). Below is the email he passed along:

Japanese grocery stores had a problem. They are much smaller than their US counterparts and therefore don’t have room to waste. Watermelons, big and round, wasted a lot of space. Most people would simply tell the grocery stores that watermelons grow round and there is nothing that can be done about it. But some Japanese farmers took a different approach. ”If the supermarkets want a space efficient watermelon,” they asked themselves, “How can we provide one?” It wasn’t long before they invented the square watermelon.

The solution to the problem of round watermelons wasn’t nearly as difficult to solve for those who didn’t assume the problem was impossible to begin with and simply asked how it could be done. It turns out that all you need to do is place them into a square box when they are growing and the watermelon will take on the shape of the box.

This made the grocery stores happy and had the added benefit that it was much easier and cost effective to ship the watermelons. Consumers also loved them because they took less space in their refrigerators which are much smaller than those in the US - which resulted in the growers being able to charge a premium price for them.

What does this have do with anything besides square watermelons? There are a five lessons that you can take away from this story which will help you in all parts of your life. Here are a few of them:

1.) Don’t Assume:

The major problem was that most people had always seen round watermelons so they automatically assumed that square watermelons were impossible before even thinking about the question. Things that you have been doing a certain way your entire life have taken on the aura of the round watermelon and you likely don’t even take the time to consider if there is another way to do it. Breaking yourself from assuming this way can greatly improve your overall life as you are constantly looking for new and better ways to do things.

2.) Question Habits:

The best way to tackle these assumptions is to question your habits. If you can make an effort to question the way you do things on a consistent basis, you will find that you can continually improve the way that you live your life. Forming habits when they have been well thought out is usually a positive thing, but most of us have adopted our habits from various people and places without even thinking about them.

3.) Be Creative:

When faced with a problem, be creative in looking for a solution. This often requires thinking outside the box. Most people who viewed this question likely thought they were being asked how they could genetically alter water melons to grow square which would be a much more difficult process to accomplish. By looking at the question from an alternative perspective, however, the solution was quite simple. Being creative and looking at things in different ways in all portions of your live will help you find solutions to many problems where others can’t see them.

4.) Look for a Better Way:

The square watermelon question was simply seeking a better and more convenient way to do something. The stores had flagged a problem they were having and asked if a solution was possible. It’s impossible to find a better way if you are never asking the question in the first place . Always ask if there is a better way of doing the things that you do and constantly write down the things you wish you could do (but currently can’t) since these are usually hints about steps you need to change. Get into the habit of asking yourself, “Is there a better way I could be doing this?” and you will find there often is.

5.) Impossibilities Often Aren’t:

If you begin with the notion that something is impossible, then it obviously will be for you. If, on the other hand, you decide to see if something is possible or not, you will find out through trial and error.