Double chocolate chiffon

I've tried two chiffons so far and they've all come from Domestic Goddess Wannabe as her recipes are pretty foolproof for beginners but more importantly, tailored for the 25cm pan which is the closest to the 26cm I have. However, they aren't the lightest as they have a higher proportion of flour to liquid and this is a case in point. This recipe is an adaptation of her chocolate milk with chocolate chip chiffon and cocoa chiffon except the latter seems proportionately to have a lot less liquid, sugar, and flour but a lot more chips. This recipe follows the cocoa chiffon but I reduced the sugar to compensate for the very sweet choc chips. It came out like a light choc chip cake rather than a chiffon per se, which is not to say that it's bad because it was quite moist. Next time I might just try the chocolate milk with chips recipe directly ... except if the batter is less thick, I don't see how it can suspend the chips in the batter and not sink?

Ingredients (for 26 cm pan)

7 eggs, separated

160g sugar (for the yolks; reduced from 168g)

119 canola oil

182ml milk (room temp)

42g cocoa powder

224g cake flour (mine was self-raising, if not add ¾ baking powder)

½ tsp salt

120g sugar (for the egg whites: reduced from 126g)

100g chocolate chips (reduced from 140g) I mixed dark and milk chips)

Method

1) Beat the yolks with the sugar until creamy and pale yellow.

2) Add the oil and beat until pale. Add the milk and beat.

3) Sift the cake flour, salt, and baking powder.

4) Using a whisk, carefully stair into the yolk mixture. (This was very thick compared to my other chiffon recipes.)

5) In a really clean bowl, whisk the egg whites. Add the sugar in three additions, the first time after the whites have just turned opaque. Whisk to just before stiff peaks and be careful near the end.

6) Take ⅓ of the meringue and whisk into the yolk mixture. You don't have to be too careful but this time but ensure that no whites remain. Take the next ⅓ and repeat but be more careful time times.

7) Tip the yolk mixture into the remaining ⅓ meringue. This time, carefully fold in until no whites remain.

8) Pour ⅓ of the batter into the cake tin. Sprinkle ⅓ of the chocolate chips on top. Pour the next ⅓ and repeat. Finally, pour in the last ⅓ of the batter and sprinkle on the chocolate chips for that 'professional' finish.

9) Using a skewer, draw zig zag lines to dispel the air bubbles. (Do not drop on the counter top! I made that mistake and all my choc chips sank to the bottom)

10) Bake at 170 deg C for 65 mins (no grill). I turned down to 165 deg C after 30 minutes and when the remaining 35 mins was up, I switched off the heat and left it inside for another 5 minutes.

My beauty at 20 mins

Too hot at 170 deg C, it started to crack

All the choc chips sank

Recipe feedback: As mentioned, not as light as previous chiffons, probably because of the milk. 

Also, I've learnt not to drop the chiffon if there is 'filling' otherwise it all sinks. Using a skewer is the way but I was lazy to wash up another item 😰

Pressure cooked BBQ pork ribs

My first attempt using the pressure cooker. The recipe isn't important, what's more important are the learnings.

Based on some research of pork ribs, I used the Meat function with a cooking time of 30 minutes based on the thickness of the ribs. Beef ribs would probably take 40 mins and korean short ribs would probably take about 20 minutes. This excludes the time taken to come up to pressure. I read that if the ribs were put in frozen, first, they must be covered in a liquid and second, the cooking time remains the same because it just takes longer to come up to pressure e.g. 20 mins instead of 10 minutes.

Despite marinating the ribs in a dry rub for 6 hours, it wasn't very tasty. I placed the ribs at the bottom, then layered on the hard vegs (potatoes and carrots), poured on a homemade bbq sauce (brown sugar, HP sauce, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste) and finally, layered on the soft vegs (tomatoes and broccoli). I left the hard vegs very chunky.

The result? The ribs were fall off the bone soft, I was amazed. However, the gravy was very watery, perhaps due to the 4 tomatoes I put in. Some recipes recommend using the Saute function to reduce this. The hard veg came out ok and could be easily forked through. However, the broccoli was dismal - overly soft and discoloured. I might need to steam this separately in future.

Overall, not bad for 30 mins (+ 10 mins to come up to pressure) work!

Instant pot yoghurt

Based on the previous post that compared yoghurt recipes, this recipe was more a trial run of IP and a science test rather than any attempt to make a refined product. At the end of the recipe, I'll input some learnings to improve the recipe for next time. I'm using deg F for this recipe instead of C purely because I don't have a digital thermometer and my analogue one reads in 5 deg F increments.

Ingredients

2l of milk (slighly over the half gallon that 1 recipe suggested)

¼ cup of yoghurt as a starter

Method

1) Press the Yoghurt and Adjust to boil the milk. It should come up to 180 deg F (optimum 82 to 87 deg C).

2) When it beeps, stir/whisk with a plastic whisk and check the temp. You may need to reboil. I tried two further cycles but finally needed to use the Saute function to get it over 180 deg F. This took about 30 to 40 mins.

3) Take out the inner pot and put it on a wire rack (or water bath) to cool. Bring the temp down to 110 deg F (optimum: 42 to 45 deg C; about 40 mins on a 29 deg C day). Remove the skin that has formed on the surface.

4) Temper the starter by putting it in the container that will be used to hold the yoghurt. Add ½ cup of the milk mixture and whisk. Pour it back into the main pot and whisk to incorporate

5) Put it back in the IP and press Yoghurt and set the time for 8 hours. I was worried that my 8 hrs would end over night which might spoil the yoghurt but it went to the yoghurt keep warm and it was all right.

6) Whisk smooth so the fat globules disperse. Pour into the prepared containers. Ideally, these should be sterilised so that the yoghurt will last longer but I didn't bother.

Recipe feedback

1) Some recipes recommend sterilising the pot and equipment and I was a bit paranoid whether my equipment (my thermometer, scoops, whisk, yoghurt containers, etc) would introduce bacteria that would affect the final product but they didn't. However I did sterilise the pot beforehand and let it air. The IP has to cool down thoroughly or else the milk might scorch at the bottom. The thermometer, scoop and whisk were 'sterilised' when they was immersed in the liquid, and I didn't wash it until I left it to incubate, so that seemed ok.

2) The recipes recommend removing the skin and whisking the final product before pouring the yoghurt into the empty containers but I didn't. The product turned out lumpy and I could taste the skin. Not really noticeable but something to note for next time.

3) The yoghurt was slightly thinner than the store bought pot set yoghurt but I didn't really mind. I could strain it a bit as some recipes suggest but again, it didn't really bother me. 

4) Trying to 'hold the boil' at 180 deg F for 5 mins proved difficult using the saute function (high) as the temp kept climbing. I ended up bringing it to 190 deg F (and was afraid that I had killed off some bacteria or something) and then letting the temp drop naturally, so it stayed at 180 deg F for about 5 to 7 minutes. Not a bad 'accidental' find with no adverse effect on the final product.

5) I didn't add sugar or vanilla but these can be added at the same time as the starter.

6) Some recipes suggest that adding less starter (i.e. 1 tbsp for ½ gallon instead of 4 tbsp or ¼ cup) and incubating for longer (ie 10 hr) would lead to a less sour product. I found it less sour than store bought and relatively thick despite using 4 tbsp of yoghurt and technically incubating for 20 hours, so I'm not convinced about this point.

Yoghurt recipe comparisons

So excited to get my instant pot finally! First thing I'm going to try is the yoghurt function. I kept a started from my week of yoghurt breakfast for this purpose.

Putting Instant Pot through its trial run cleaning

Looking at several recipes, I discovered 2 main ways of making yoghurt: either directly in the pot, or to put it in glass bottles and sterilise the pot and milk at the same time.

1) Covers both methods

Many bloggers quote this article, so it should be quite definitive

http://www.teamyogurt.com/posts/2016/3/30/making-yogurt-in-an-instant-pot-is-it-worth-it

- ½ gallon (1893 ml)

- keeping temp at 180 deg F for 5 mins makes a thicker yoghurt

- when removing the cover, don't let condensation drip into the milk

- discard the milk skin after it has cooled

In short, the steps are:

i) Sterilize to 82 deg C (180 deg F) (about 26 mins) and hold the temp (boil) for 5 mins

ii) Cool to 46 deg C (115 deg C; about 37 mins)

iii) Add starter : 2 tbsp

iv) Incubate and ferment for 8 hrs

2) Based on the first article

http://www.tidbits-cami.com/2015/09/homemade-yogurt.html/2

- 1 gallon (3785 ml)

- uses powdered milk

- whisk using plastic (not metal) whisk

- Boil for 1 hour to get to 82 deg C (180 deg F) for 1 gallon of milk

- Cool to 43 deg C (110 deg F)

- ¼ cup starter

- Ferment for 8 hrs

- Strains whey for ½ hour

- Return to pot and stir to get a smoother consistency before placing in jars.

- Whey + yoghurt becomes buttermilk

3) Here is an article that covers potential failures and also gives a recipe for less sour yoghurt

http://thisoldgal.com/instant-pot-greek-yogurt/

- 1 gallon milk

- sterilize the pot first before boiling the milk, running it thru a steam cycle. The inner pot should air dry (or put it in the fridge) and the instant pot should cool down completely.

- Not reaching the right temp 82 -85 deg C (180 deg F) after a boil cycle, and maintain it for a few minutes. This temp of 82 to 85 also leads to a thicker yoghurt.

- If you haven't reached that temp, saute at low

- Purchase a good quality starter. Starters can be saved and frozen.

- No need to add powdered milk.

- whisk using a plastic (not metal) whisk to help cooling and halfway during boil cycle

- Cool down on wire rack or in a water bath to 43 deg C (110 deg F)

- inaccurate reading of temp (whisk the milk)

- add vanilla when adding the starter.

- Using less starter (2 tbsp) takes longer (10 instead of 8 hours) but makes it less sour.

- Don't stir

4) This link uses the glass bottle method but includes a video. This is also the official Instant Pot recipe site.

http://www.hippressurecooking.com/video-how-to-make-yogurt-in-instant-pot-duo/

Updated: Tried out recipe #1 for making yoghurt in the pot and it was a success, sorta.

Sweet miso daikon and wakame salad

I have been going to the asian supermarket and shopping for asian vegetables more recently. I usually find that they're more troublesome to prepare but they provide the green, leafy veg that my diet so sorely needs. Anyway, asian veg also includes radish or daikon but I've very little experience in how to cook it other than in soup. And today is the first official day of summer so soup isn't likely to be on the menu any time soon!

Wonderfully, I found this recipe: https://cookpad.com/us/recipes/243781-daikon-radish-and-wakame-stem-salad-with-sweet-miso

It belongs to the family of 漬物 (tsukemono) which means Japanese pickle but in the subset of quick pickles浅漬け (asazuke) that are more like a salad because they aren't salted or vinegar-ed for very long - typically a few hours - and meant to be consumed within a few days.

I have adapted the Cookpad receipe to upsize it for my liking and also added in carrot to give an extra sweetness. The daikon adds another element of taste - pepperyness - which I'm not used to but is intriguing.

Ingredients

Half a daikon, peeled

2 small carrots, peeled

2 slices of wakame, soaked for 30 minutes

3 tbsp miso

2 tbsp honey

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp Japanese mayo

Method

1) Add the dressing ingredients into a big bowl. Stir to combine well.

2) Prepare and add the vegetables. Toss the vegetables. Transfer into a container with a lid and cover. 3) Place in the fridge for several hours to get cold before eating. Preferably served cold.