Marble cake

Last 2 weeks had been really busy. Busy at work, busy in the garden, busy going out. Well indeed it's good that I'm busy, felt like I'm just out of hibernation. Been to London for West End musical show - Thriller. Not what I expected a West End show could be, it involves great participation from audiences, clapping hand, dancing, cheering, more like a concert tome. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the music.

Instead of April shower, this April has been really dry and weather is splendid. We almost had 2 weeks of sunny days and each days are getting warmer. What could be more rewarding than relaxing in one own garden with a cup of afternoon tea with cake. After all this is very core to the tradition of British people. Therefore I baked a marble cake to go with a cuppa.



Marble cake
Ingredients

• 125 gm butter
• 125 gm caster sugar
• 125 gm self raising flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tbsp of milk
• 2 large eggs
• 50 gm chocolate (70% cocoa bar)
• 1 tbsp double cream
  

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line a rectangular cake tin.
   
2. Melt chocolate with double cream using steaming or use microwave. Let it to cool down.
   
3. Lightly beat the eggs
4. Cream the butter and sugar using food processor/mixer
5. Add the egg a little at the time into (3) until done.
6. Then add in the flour, , milk , vanilla essence and mixed well. The cake mixture should look smooth.
7. Scoop 1/3 of the mixture and mix with the chocolate.
8. Pour the original mixture into the cake tin then follow by the chocolate mixture from (7)
9. Bake for 30-35minutes.
   

Jerry is having a Siesta

Victoria Sponge Cake

Many of you have heard of the Icelandic volcanic ash has cause chaos in the air travel across Europe. UK air space has been shut down since Thursday. The latest news indicate it will still shut till tomorrow evening 7pm. Yes, few of my friends from Taiwan are stranded in London at the moment. I really hope they can get home soon.

Having baked lemon tart last week, I have spare tub of lite double cream which need to be consumed before used date. Well having my friend over to view my little spring garden, baking a Victoria Sponge Cake sounds ideal with a cuppa.
This is rather classic cake in Britain. As the name suggested, it was named after Queen Victoria, as she favored a slice of sponge cake with her afternoon tea. This is rather easy cake to make.

Victoria Sponge Cake
Ingredients

• 200g butter or margarine, softened at room temperature
• 200 g caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 200g self raising flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp of milk
  

Filling

• 150 ml whipping cream
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
  
• 100 g strawberry/raspberry jam
  

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Grease and line 2 x 18cm/7in cake tins with baking paper.
3. Cream the butter and the sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy.
4. Beat in the eggs, a little at a time, and stir in the vanilla extract.
5. Fold in the flour using a large metal spoon, adding a little extra milk if necessary, to create a batter with a soft dropping consitency.
6. Divide the mixture between the cake tins and gently spread out with a spatula.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
8. Remove from the oven and set aside for 5 minutes, then remove from the tin and peel off the paper. Place onto a wire rack. Let it cool for half an hour.
9. Meanwhile prepare the filling. Whip the cream with vanilla extract till soft peak forms. Leave aside.
10.Sandwich the cakes together with raspberry/strawberry jam and whipped cream. Enjoy with a cup of tea.

We have been granted excellent weather since the early spring, it's really beautiful and weather is warm enough to enjoy the best of outdoor . Attached some pictures from my garden.

Early spring bloom, the show will only gets better

Good sign, my strawberry plant is flowering now....... dreaming of the juicy sweet fruit comes summer

First bloom of my lovely Dutch iris

Lovely tulips

My fruit tree (green gage - a type of sweet plum) is flowering too. I planted the tree last autumn

magnolia bloom-spectacular

Lemon tart

Today it felt like summer, one could easily fire up a BBQ. It's a wonderful feeling when sun is up, weather is warm, spring flowers in bloom, birds chirping away making their own melody and bumblebees buzzing happily searching for nectar. All this happening in April, the extreme cold we had back in December and January felt so distance and all could only hope for many basking in the sun summer days.

Today I make lemon tart, a nice dessert for a warm day. This recipes I learnt from watching Rachel Allen Bake over at UKTV Good Food Channel. I must say she is a talented cook and I like her down to earth attitude. Am also liking her lemon tart recipes.

Lemon Tart
Ingredients (adapted from UKTV Good Food)

For the sweet shortcrust pastry

• 200g plain flour, sifted
• 1 tbsp icing sugar
• 100g butter , chilled and cubed
• 1 egg, beaten

For the filling

• 3 eggs
• 1 lemon, grated zest
• 125g caster sugar (I use 100gm)
  
• 150ml double cream
• 3 lemons, juice only
• 1 orange, juice only
• icing sugar, for dusting

1. For the pastry: Put the flour, butter and a pinch of salt in a food processor and process briefly.

2. Add half the beaten egg and continue to process. (You might add a little more egg, but not too much as the mixture should be just moist enough to come together.) If making the pastry by hand, rub the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs then, using your hands, add just enough egg to bring it together.

3. With your hands, flatten out the ball of dough until it is about 2cm thick, then wrap it in cling film or place it in a plastic bag and leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or, if you are pushed for time, in the freezer for 10–15 minutes, before using.

4. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.

5. Line a 23cm tart tin with the shortcrust pastry and cover the base with baking parchment. Fill the tin with baking beans and bake blind for 10-15 minutes. Remove the beans and parchment for the last five minutes of baking for a golden crust.

5. For the filling: Place the eggs, lemon zest and sugar in a bowl and whisk for a couple of minutes until the egg is all broken up.

6. Add the cream, orange and lemon juice. Mix well, skimming off any froth from the top of the mixture. Carefully pour the filling into the cooked pastry case.

7. Reduce the oven temperature to 160C/gas 3 and bake the tart for 30-35 minutes or until the filling has just set in the centre – it should only wobble very slightly when you take it out of the oven.

8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 15 minutes before removing the tart from the tin and transferring to a plate or cake stand. When it is cool, dredge a little icing sugar over the top and cut into slices to serve.

Cook's tip: Rachel suggests rolling out the pastry between two sheets of clingfilm to help keep it together, then removing the top layer of film and flipping it into the tin. She also keeps the top layer of clingfilm in whilst the pastry shell is baking blind.

Enjoy the tart.

I also did make some photo shoots from garden this afternoon..... to my readers, enjoy the bloom

Tau Yu Bak (Braised pork in soya sauce)

For this authentic dish, I must insist one can't go wrong with pork belly. If you're health conscious, slot in extra time on treadmill to burn off that extra calories :-) . After all if you like braised meat like myself, it's well worth the extra day of cycling for 10miles.


Tau Yu Bak (Braised pork in soya sauce)
Ingredients (serve 4)

• 500 gm pork belly marinade with
  1 tbsp light soy sauce
  1/4 tsp 5-spice powder
  1 tbs oyster sauce
  1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
  1/2 tsp pepper
  1/2 tsp salt
  2 tbs sugar or to taste
  
• Other ingredients:
  
  • 4 whole garlic pods with skin on
  • 1 star anise
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 4 cloves
  • 1 tbsp dark caramel sauce (I use Cheong Chan brand)
  • 2 tbsp light soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp sugar or to taste
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tsp of cooking oil
    
• 
  
  1. Marinate pork for several hours or overnight.
  2. Heat a heavy based cast iron pot on medium heat, add in vegetable oil, I use Le Cruset pot to good use again.
  3. Put in marinated pork to brown.
  4. Add garlic pods, cinnamon stick, star anise and cloves.
  5. Pour in half cup of water and cook covered and bring to boil.
  6. Add in dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sugar and salt to taste.
  7. Turn to low heat. Add half cup of water and simmer till gravy is thick and meat is tender. This roughly takes about 1.5hrs-2hrs.
  8. If gravy is drying out, just add more water. Likewise if meat is not tender enough, just add water and simmer for a longer time.
  9. To serve, cut pork into slices and add gravy to the dish. Garnish with spring onion. Served hot with rice.

Enjoy and remember to excercise thereafter.

Here's the cheery daffodils in my garden.

Spring In Action

Lately the weather has warmed up significantly and always gifted with clear blue sky in the morning. Before the April shower sets in,one should enjoy the best weather while you can. After all, English weather is truly unpredictable.

So I decided to check out the Daffodil dale near astronomical ground in Cambridge. With my regal Pashley Princess, I cycled all the way to Cambridge and urged my buddy to go and enjoy the lovely flowers and spring weather. This year the arrival of daffodils are late by roughly 4 weeks due to extreme cold we had in winter. They're such a cheery flowers, they break the winter gloom and telling us spring is in. Even my garden daffodils are up too :-).

After the daffodils, I went to town to do some marketing. I passed by a lovely bakery shop, Fitzbillies along Trumpington Street. Yes, I heard of their famed Chelsea bun but had never try it before. This bakery dated back to 1922 and at times expect ques to get this lovely bun. And if you've craving for sweet things......go for it with a cup of tea. I bought two buns and brought it home with me. Indeed, this is one of the best Chelsea bun one could hope for- nice mix of cinnamon, berries, sweet syrup. So next time if you're around Cambridge do remember to go to this bakery and get this lovely bun and give it a try.

And yes we've switched to BST (British Summer Time). We've to change our clock to an hour earlier as day are getting longer. Yes, the whole season cycle begins again................

Green Apple with grated sour plum

I can smell spring. Indeed spring is in the air. So much to look forward to..... in short, anticipation. I've been so busy lately as gardening calendar year is starting here again. Few achievements - like erecting a rose arch for my climbing rose (to last count I've 19 different rose varieties in my garden), enlarging my flower borders single handedly, grow my own grubs, weeding, lawn repair, cleaning up after winter etc. Some of you might think why the hassle ...... I tell you honestly,reap the reward in summer with a fantastic display of colors and bountiful harvest ..... sit and enjoy the labor and effort you put in during late winter/early spring. I don't mind a glass of Pimms on a hot summer day though.

Here is a nice little healthy snack to have on a hot day. I find that sour fruit will easily quench one thirst and open up ones appetite. This is so easy to prepare and in no time you'll snacking away on healthy bite.

Green apple with grated sour plum
Ingredients (serve 2)

• 3 Granny Smith green apples
• 3 dry sour plum
  
• 1/4 tsp of salt

1. Wash, peel and diced the apples. Place them in a bowl/plate. Rub them with salt to prevent browning of apples.
   
2. Use a grater or knife to grate the dry sour plum flesh onto the apples.
3. You can cool it in fridge or serve them immediately.
   

Sunday Roast

This is a classic British meal served on Sunday for lunch. It's normally consist of a type of roast meat (chicken, pork, lamb, beef) and served with roast potato, with sides of yorkshire pudding, vegetables, stuffing and good gravy.

I wouldn't say NO to this classic meal anyday of the week, imagine the flavorsome chicken with it's delicious crispy skin plus the perfect golden and crispy roast potato......you've got the idea.
My British friend always invited me over for lovely roast dinner, am gosh their roast potato is to die for. So I learnt a bit of skill from them on how to create that lovely roast potato and for the chicken-the oven will do justice for me I hope. :-)
So I thought, I will experiment with this classic dish, off to supermarket to get a medium size free range chicken (1.5kgs), king edward potatoes and some vegetables.

Roast chicken with roast potato
Ingredients (serve 4)

• 1 whole free range chicken
• some sea salt
• Rosemary sprigs
• 2 carrots-diced
• 1 medium onion-diced
• 4 large King Edward potatoes-cut into 6 for each potatoes
• 100 ml sunflower oil (if you prefer, you can do with 50ml sunflower oil+50ml goose fat)

1. Preheat the oven to 190C.
2. Clean the chicken and pat dry. Stuffed the chicken cavity with carrots, onion and one sprigs of rosemary. Use a toothpick to seal up the bottom. Rub with sea salt on the skin and top with some rosemary sprigs. Place on a roasting tin.
   
3. Pour the oil into another roasting tin. Put the tin into the oven. Also put the chicken roasting tin into the oven as well. Let it roast for 20minutes at 190C.
   
4. Put the potato into a pot with lid and parboil for 10minutes. Off the heat. Drained. Pour it back into the pot and close the lid and let itself steam for another 10minutes or so to loose some moisture, the potato should look slightly soft and fluffy.
   
5. Take out the oil roasting tin, place the potato into the tin, it should be bubbling away. Use a spoon to scoop up some oil to baste the potato. Place the tin back into the oven.
6. Turn the oven heat to 160C now. This will ensure the slow cook process of the chicken and retain it's moisture.
   
7. Baste the potato every 30minutes. The chicken should be cook after 1.5hrs.
   
8. By the time the chicken cook, the potato will be have acquire a golden brown skin. Remove the potato and drained with paper towel.
9. Place the chicken onto a big serving plate, carved and served with the roast potato and onion gravy. The vegetables in the cavity will taste absolutely gorgeous too.

There you go, Sunday lunch sorted out. :-)
That's a real good roast chicken and successful roast potato too. Yummy.

And here carpet of crocuses along The Backs in Cambridge, and couldn't resist my Pashley against the backdrop of crocuses. Ahhhh....... it's Spring :-)

Kick start your day with healthy breakfast

There is a wise saying in Chinese, "早 上 吃的 飽, 下午 吃的好, 晚 上 吃的少" [ have a full breakfast, have a good lunch and eat less for dinner] . Most often we're reversing our meal-where we skip breakfast and end the day with a heavy supper. This is not healthy.
I always take my breakfast even if it's just a glass of milk. I felt much more energize if I have a proper breakfast.
So this morning I decided to make a rather healthy breakfast and it tasted light and yet packed with energy to start my day......or rather to conquer the world. :-)

Poached egg, salad with ciabata
Ingredients (served 2)

• 1 ciabata roll
  
• 1 medium tomato-deseed and chop
• one bunch of lamb lettuce
• 4 chestnut mushroom-slice
• 2 cloves of garlic-finely chopped
• 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
• dash of sea salt
• 3 tbsp of olive oil
• 2 free range eggs
• some seeds
  
• dash of pepper
• dash of dry herbs-oregano
  
• parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Heat a pan, add the olive oil, once heated, add the garlic to saute till fragant. Off the heat, add the mushroom immediately and mixed well. Let it to cool.
2. In a bowl, mix the chopped tomato and lamb lettuce. Scoop 2 tbsp of olive oil from (1), balsamic vinegar and salt. Mixed well.
3. Prepare the poach egg. Boil a pot of hot water, one boiling, crack the egg one at a time into egg poacher or just drop it into the boiling water. Boil for 1.5-2minutes. Remove from the pot. Set aside.
   
4. Slice the ciabata roll. Dab some olive oil onto the ciabata roll. Sprinkle with some oregano. Toast the roll in oven or toaster for 5minutes.
   
5. Place the roll on a plate. Top with some mushroom, salad and poached egg. Sprinkle with some toasted seeds and black pepper. Add grated parmesan cheese if you like. Drizzle the plate with balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing.

Enjoy the healthy breakfast.

Onion Bhaji

As some of you might know, I've been churning out soy milk with my new machine. And the by product is the soy pulp. I was thinking what to do with it:

1. Chuck it into the bin.
2. Feed the birds.
3. Using it to make some lovely food.

I think I'll go for option (3).
My mum always make a traditional Foochow fried oyster/prawn cake using the soy pulp, rice flour, oyster/prawn/minced pork, chives and some seasoning. Even Anthony Bourdain tried that special oyster cake at Maxwell Food Centre in Singapore. It was prepared with a special ladle and deep fried to golden brown. The skin is so crispy on the outside and the soya pulp makes the texture inside moist and soft. So next time don't throw away that lovely soy pulp after milking the soy. It can be used for making a lot of cooking, even it is being used a lot in Japanese cooking (known as okara).
As for me, I adapt my own method to churn out onion bhaji in a jiffy. And the end result........ am asking for more ... the soy pulp does make a difference to the texture and it's good for vegetarian friends and do give it a try.



Onion Bhaji
Ingredients (good for 2 persons)

• 1 large onion- finely chopped
  
• 2 tbsp of soy pulp
• 2 tbsp of rice flour/corn flour
  
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 tbsp of curry powder
• 1 egg
• 1 green chilli-deseeded and chopped
  
• 1/2 tsp soda bicarbonate (optional)
• vegetable oil for shallow frying

1. Lightly beat the egg, add in the soya pulp, curry powder, salt and rice flour.
   Mix well.
2. Add in the onion and green chilli. Stir to mix well.
3. Heat a frying pan with oil for shallow frying. Use medium heat.
   
4. Use a tablespoon to ladle a scoop and slowly drop into the frying pan. Repeat to fill up the pan. Fry each side for about 2-3minutes till golden brown.
   
5. Remove and drained. Served with ketchup or chutney.
   

Banana Muffin and a great weekend

This week has been splendid.....lots of sunshine and everyday almost perfect blue sky. Still a little bit on the chilly side, but hey I can't complaint for this lovely weather, it has been a freaking cold winter. Even my spring bulb flowers had been delayed...... I started to see some coming out and some early flowering crocuses and iris make my day. :-)
Initially I intended to bake banana cake but somehow decided at the last minute to bake muffin instead, as I've no access to my laptop for banana cake recipes. Therefore I always fall back on my ole good muffin recipes book on the shelf.

Banana muffin
Ingredients (make 11-12 muffins)

• 280 gm plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp soda bicarbonate
• pinch of salt
• 100 gm sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 3 ripen bananas (weighs around 1 pound)-mashed
• 85 gm melted butter
• 90 ml milk
• 3 tbsp rolled oats
• a handful of chopped walnut (optional)

1. Seive the flour, baking powder and soda bicarbonate into a mixing bowl. Add in the sugar.
2. Preheat oven to 190C-200C.
   
3. In another bowl, mix bananas, butter, milk and rolled oat. Pour this mixture into (1)
4. Lightly beat the egg and mix to (1). Add in essence vanilla and drop in chopped walnut.
   
5. Mixed well all the ingredients. Scoop into muffin cups or muffin trays. I use silicon muffin cup (they're brilliant).
6. Bake for 20-25minutes till golden brown, or when you poke the middle of muffin with knife they come out clean.
7. You can decorate muffin with glazed banana.

I'm enjoying my muffins with friends on lovely Sunday morning.


I also took some pictures of my early flowering spring bulbs. I'm intrigued whether I could produce saffron from the stamen of my lovely crocuses. :-)

White and lilac crocus

Snowdrop

Iris reticulata

Purple Crocus

Happy Chap Goh May

I'm so looking forward to spring at the moment, I've had enough of this extremely cold winter. This few days weather is warming up, really sunny, the days are getting longer and yes all my spring bulbs in the garden seem to wake up from their dormant period. So much to look forward to..... how I love spring. I'm counting down, officially it's only 3 weeks away from March 21st.
Over the weekend I made sweet potato dumplings with minced meat fillings. I served them over a bowl of piping hot rice noodle soup. It's definitely warming and of course ended the CNY on a high note with sweet potato dumplings looking like gold nuggets....

The recipes of sweet potato dumpling can be found here. One can also replace the fillings with vegetable fillings of your choice if one doesn't like meat fillings.

Wishing everyone a belated Chap Goh May. Anyone out there making a wish and threw mandarin oranges into the river on that nite? :-)

Happy Occasion

Joyous be every such occasion marked with gaiety and full of happy fervour, yes I'm talking about wedding here. Last weekend I have flown over to Dublin, Ireland to attend a wedding of a lovely couple, friends of mine. It was a happy moment to had witness the joining of two hearts into one. Not only that, we were treated to the most sumptious and delicious Chinese banquet at Ming Court restaurant Blanchardstown. The seafood were aplenty and fresh. We had a 12 course dinner banquet. One of my favorite is the huge lobster cooked with scallion and ginger and not forgetting the abalone stewed with oyster sauce with pak choi. And I have the opportunity to dine with so.moo.food. I truly enjoy every moment of it.

I also did a 2hrs touring Dublin city on my foot. It was a crisp winter day. Here you are with the photos of Dublin city.

Chinese radish cake/Loh Bak Gou 蘿蔔糕

I have always wanted to attempt making this savory radish cake but never come round to it. It's commonly found in Hong Kong dim sum restaurant. Reason is I'm not sure of the success rate and also it requires quite a lot of effort I would have thought. And I have no excuses not to make it to consume during Chinese New Year. But I had researched online for quite a number of recipes and decided to stick to this one and change some ingredients as I can't find them in my local supermarket and make do with what I have in my pantry. It's not that tedious as I would have thought and the end result is yummy-licious delights. For those would like to follow the step, you can follow this video (it's in Cantonese though)

Loh Bak Gou 蘿蔔糕
Ingredients:

• 200g smoked bacon - finely chopped (you can use Chinese lap yuk and Chinese sausages)
  
• 2 tbsp dried shrimps-soaked and finely chopped-I omitted this
  
• 3-5 large dried shitake mushroom - soaked, removed stem and finely chopped-keep the soaking water
• 4 dried scallops- soaked for 1 hour and shredded-keep the soaking water
• 3 shallots-finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic-finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 1 tsp salt or to taste

• 750 - 800g shredded radish-drained any excess water
  
• 250-300 ml water (from the water used to soak scallops and mushroom)
• 220g rice flour
• 30g wheat starch/corn starch/tapioca starch
• 1/2 tbsp chicken powder
• 4 tbsp cooking oil
  

1. Mix rice flour, starch and water together.
   
2. Heat up a non stick wok with 2 tbsp oil and fry shallot and garlic till fragant. Then add smoked bacon , dried shrimps, mushroom and scallop. Fry till fragrant. Add in white pepper and salt to taste. Remove to one side. Check if the wok has any brown sticky bits, if yes wash before proceeding to next step. Browning bits can make the cake looks greyish or brownish.
   
3. Next heat the wok with 2 tbsp of oil. Once hot, add in the radish and stir fry for around 6 minutes. You'll notice that the radish will excrete it's own juice during cooking process.
   
4. Stir in flour mixture, taste to check if more seasoning is needed and cook at low heat stirring all the time for till the mixture started to thicken like gooey congee . Turn off heat.
   
5. Grease a retangular cake tin or aluminium foil container. Scoop the mixture into the container. Prepare the steamer. Place the cake into steamer and steam for about 1 hour 20minutes. Once cooked, it is a bit soft at the moment, don't worry, the cooling process overnight will cause it to set. Remove from steamer and cover the top with aluminium foil and let it to cool overnight.
   
6. Once it's set, you can easily removed from the container and you can slice the cake. You can dust it with just a little corn starch/potato starch. You can also omit the corn starch and fry on it's own.
   
7. Prepare a non stick pan, heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil. Once hot, put in the cake and let it shallow fry till a golden brown surface is achieved on both side. Served hot with sprinkling of spring onion and XO sauce/sambal sauce/or thick dark soya sauce.
   

Enjoy.....

Shredded radish

Steamed and cooled radish cake-ready for slicing

I gave some loh bak gou to my guinea pig friend to try my first attempt and it's thumbs up :-)

Just to let you all know I was given a new kitchen gadget by a friend...... A soy milk making machine. It's a brand made in China (Joyoung) and gosh I'm impressed.....only at a press of a button, and 20minutes later you'll have the freshest hot soy milk. I highly recommend this machine for those who like fresh soy milk. I've been milking it every morning for breakfast :-)