Hobakjae jeon (Zucchini 전)

Since I started making jeon around 10 years ago now it would seem, I started with this basic method that used flour and water, then went on to something fancy with this method that used ice water and cake flour.  Since then I have gone to many different variations - mix of rice/corn/tapioca/potato flour with iced water, baking powder, with/without egg, etc. Nothing worked! Of course they recommend the pre-made Korean pancake mix, which I have no doubt will work. But I don't want to end up with yet another bag of something sitting in my pantry that I will only use once in a long while.

The key issues were:

1) The dough is too doughy and won't crisp up.

2) It is too oily and uses too much oil.

3) It falls apart.

Until I came across this receipe by my Korean Kitchen which uses only flour and get this - no liquid! Her method involves very lightly salting the veg so that the liquid comes out, and it's this liquid that's used to bind the ingredients. And then we have Marion's recipe that has all the works - baking powder, mix of flours and egg and only fries for 2 mins per side. Altho I haven't tried this exact receipe, I have tried enough variations to know this won't work. However, it gave me an idea.

I have watched many videos of roadside/market hawkers in Korea making 전 and I noticed one thing - they had just barely enough flour to stick everything together, or the batter was very liquidy. Many of them also seemed to only coat on egg (with their hands!) on the top side while the 전 was in the pan(!) rather than putting it in the batter. If they were making chive pancakes, they'd even arrange the chives on the pan directly to char, then pour on the liquid batter on top and let it flow in between the chives to adhere them. I tried this method and it did kinda work in terms of adhering the ingredients except my cakey batter was the issue. It made me think - in the past, it's the egg + flour that made the batter go cakey and not crispy. So egg was the issue. However when I omitted the egg, the thin batter wasn't enough to glue the bits together, so egg is the binder. Perhaps these 아줌마 were on to something. 

So this time I tried the Korean Kitchen recipe and as expected, it fell apart on my first try. There wasn't enough liquid released by the salted veg to bind the veg. However after I smeared on the egg on the top side but it still fell apart. So I put it into the batter and then this time it wasn't too eggy. Secondly, my first 전 fell apart and was super oily and stuck to the pan because of the wrong oil temp. But by my third and final 전 when my pan was correctly warmed up and it had developed a 'non-stick' quality, the oil was able to go under the pancake to prevent it from sticking rather than into the veg to make it oily (and yet still stick to the pan). 

So in short, it's ALL about proportions and controlling the temperature. Many recipes give you exact measurements, which are difficult because I don't want to end up with a quarter of a carrot or whatever left. So my top tips for a successful 전 are: 

1) cutting ingredients up as thinly/small as possible so that they can stick. Try to keep them the same shape eg all matchsticks or all round pieces. Using different shapes eg prawn bits with matchstick veg is a bad idea.

2) flour is of no consequence. 

3) Liquid is the enemy of binding. Egg is inevitable but you can't have TOO much egg otherwise it just becomes an omelette, which isn't crispy.

4) Utilise my inner 아줌마 that I now am and own, and don't use exact proportions, but work with what I have on hand and my intuitive feel.

Ingredients (in the vein of Korean Kitchen)

Matchstick or long veg seem to work the best - 2 parts zucchini to 1 part carrot

3 tbsp seafood - she used rehydrated shrimp and then chopped finely for umami but recommended real prawns, which I used, chopped chunkily.

¼ tsp salt

2 eggs

½C flour (not all may be used)

Method

1. Remove the skin of veg and chop all the veg finely into matchsticks.

2. Salt with the ¼ tsp salt, mix thoroughly and set aside for at least 20 minutes for the water to exude.

3. Add the flour - just enough such that all the veg is coated and the liquid exuded helps it to adhere to the veg and still has about 1 to 2 tbsp of dry flour leftover. Really 'knead' it into the veg so that the flour adheres to the individual veg pieces.

4. Crack in 1 egg and mix well so that the egg is properly mixed with the flour (again, the adhesion) rather than just egg sitting on top of the flour. The excess dry flour here sld be used up and there sld be minimal liquid batter visible. Crack open the 2nd egg and beat it but set aside. If there isn't enough liquid to bind the batter, add additional egg until it achieves the state described.

5. Warm up the pan. Once hot, add the oil and allow the oil to smoke slightly. Add on a veg to test - if it sizzles, it's ready. Pour on 1 scoop of mixture then flatten, then the 2nd scoop next to it. Then with the spatula, work it to combine into 1 pancake and then shape it at the edges. This works better than pouring on a huge mound of 2 scoops then flattening, which has the effect of causing the veg to absorb the oil and then the pancake adheres to the pan. 

6. Once the pancake seems slightly set, work under the pancake to lift it so that it doesn't stick to the pan. Add more oil around the edges if necessary to achieve this (it sld sizzle, otherwise your pan is too cool). At this point, it sld slide easily around the pan.

7. When it can slide around, time to flip. Carefully flip with 2 spatula or if you're brave enough, flip in one go! Continue rotating the pan and sliding the pancake, and adding more oil around the edges as required.

8. The whole process easily takes 20 minutes for a really crispy pancake. Patience is required - keep it on medium heat as high heat will scorch the pancake before its ready and too low heat will either take forever or cause the pancake to stick to the pan. Then repeat until all the batter is used up.

9. Drain on a wire rack and serve ASAP as they go soggy really fast.

I have no pictures because it just tastes so good!

Chocolate cotton cheesecake

I have tried so many cotton cheesecakes including a whole series in 2017 where I tried a whole series of cotton cheesecake experiments.

Because I'm bored with plain cotton cheesecake, here I focus on chocolate cotton cheesecake which I have never tried before. I note the use of flour rather than cake flour in both recipes, the Kat Kwa version using 8" pan with 5 eggs, and the Kitchen101 version using 9" pan with written recipe here using 6 eggs. From my previous experiments, I've realised that my small oven can only take up to a 8" pan and the big oven works best with the 9" pan. Other than that differences in proportions and slight differences in method, the main ingredients are the same - plain flour, milk (unlike cake flour and variations such as double cream, whipping cream or condensed milk in some recipes), melted chocolate and cocoa. 

After it's cooled

Note that in terms of baking time, the 8" takes 150 deg C for 90 mins in 1 inch tap water with no extra cooling down time in the often and unmolding immediately after removal from the oven. The larger cake is baked in cloth lined water-bath also 1 inch tap water baked at 150 deg C for 40 mins then 1h 20mins at 140 deg C. Then left to cool with door ajar in turned off oven for 40 to 50 mins to minimise shrinkage. After removing from oven, unmould and cool in elevated position 6" from counter top. Not sure why there's such a huge difference in the baking times!

Ingredients (for 8" pan)

225g cream cheese

50g butter

80g dark chocolate for baking

150ml milk

20g cocoa

50g flour

5 eggs, separated

90g caster sugar

pinch of salt

dash of lemon/lime juice

Method

1. In a bain marie, melt the cream cheese, butter and dark chocolate using a spatula. When all melted, add in milk using a whisk to combine but don't whisk too hard and introduce air. (Optionally, add in 2 to 3 tbsp of sugar)

2. Remove from the pot from the heat and add the yolks one at a time, using the whisk to combine.

3. Sift in the cocoa and flour with the pinch of salt, and again use the whisk to combine.

4. In a very clean bowl, whisk the egg whites. Once the whites are frothy, squirt in the lemon/lime juice. Then, slowly rain in the caster sugar at intervals. Turn up the KA and beat until soft peaks. Just when it's almost soft peaks, turn down the KA to low to beat out the bubbles.

5. Using the whisk transfer over ¼ of the meringue into the yolk-cream cheese mixture and combine lightly. You can be quite rough with this.

6. Pour the mixture back into the remaining meringue and use the whisk to combine. Be more careful but do a good job. Finally, transfer to a spatula and fold carefully.

7. Prepare the baking tin and line the sides with parchment so that the parchment is taller than the side of the tin. Your cake WILL grow and overflow otherwise. Using foil, wrap the outside of the tin so that water doesn't go in. In a larger tray that's large enough to hold the baking tin, pour in around 1 inch of room temp water. 

8. Place the tin in the water bath. Bake for 90 mins at 150 deg C. Once done remove immediately and unmold but not removing the parchment. Elevate the cake and allow the cake to cool at least 6 cm away from the counter top.

9. Once fully chilled, remove the parchment and keep the cake in a airtight container for 4 hrs or best overnight to fully chill. Cake tastes better fully chilled than at room temp.

Feedback

- In the past, I used cake flour and I'm wondering if it's caused me a multitude of problems including cake deflating. This time I used plain flour to hopefully give the cake more structure.

- The cake cracked and burnt. Note to self - in my small oven, the cake is too close to the top heating element once it sits in the water bath tray. It's fine for castella because there's no water bath. And as a result too, there was a very serious 2 waists!

Just out of the oven, crack is prominent

After cooling - the crack has closed up

- I removed it from the oven almost immediately and removed the tin as the instructions asked, but it still deflated. It was already badly cracked due to being too close to the heating element.

- So far this 6-egg Earl Grey in the 9" tin in the big oven followed by 5-egg Black Sesame in 8" in the small oven have been the most successful. Even with the same cooking times (150 deg C for 90 mins), looks like cooling in the oven for 30 to 40 mins is a must. Next to try will be the 2 hour at low temp baking by Kitchen101!

AF Goguma (Korean sweet potato)

From ItsHelenMelon.

1. Find small thin shaped potatoes, they are sweeter. Chop off both ends. Slit skin in the centre (optional) for easy removal later.

2. Top rack at 190 deg C for 30 mins.

3. Remove and put in ice bath for 2 minutes.

4. Increase temp to 220 deg C and put in for final 30 mins. Even without slitting the skin, it should peel right off.

Recipe feedback

It works! I followed exactly and it does work. The skin didn't slip off as quickly as I expected but otherwise it works well.

Claypot glutinous rice

I have cooked both regular rice in claypot with lapcheong as well as glutinous rice with lapcheong using the Claypot function in my rice cooker. Both recipes work really well after a lot of research, trial and error. However, now I want to up the ante and cook glutinous rice in the claypot! I am avoiding adding raw meat (eg chicken) as that only increases the complexity - I want to prefect the rice portion first.

Easiest recipe and method by Leonard Lee where he cooks the raw chicken separately in a wok vs slightly more involved recipe where he cooks the chicken in the claypot. Both recipes use raw chicken but I will just use thinly sliced raw pork and lap cheong.

A bit too scorched?

Ingredients

4 small C or 3 big C glutinous rice (soaked for at least 3 to 4 hrs)

2.6C water (roughly 1C rice: 0.6C water)

30g rice wine

1 tsp sesame oil

300g meat (eg sliced chicken highs)

6 - 8 rehydrated shitake mushrooms, sliced

15g dried shrimp

minced garlic

Garnishing: 1-2 tsp sesame oil, sliced spring onions

Sauce

2 tbsp light soya

1.5 tsp sugar

1.5 tsp chicken stock powder

30ml shrimp soaking water

30ml mushroom soaking water

Dash of white pepper

Green leafy eg chai xin or kai lan

Egg (optional)

Method

1. Soak dried shrimps in rice win for 15 mins. Set aside soaking wine liquid.

2. Soak dehydrated mushrooms for 1-2 hrs and slice thinly. Set aside soaking liquid.

3. Optionally, marinade the raw sliced pork. (oyster, dark soya light soya, corn starch, sugar, pepper)

4. Coat bottom with 1 tbsp of lard. Add the drained glutinous rice to claypot. Add the water and 30g of rice wine and 1 tsp sesame oil.

5. Bring to boil over heat. Stir once then turn to medium high and simmer, covered, for 8 (2 smallC) to 12 to 15 mins (3 large C, depending on amount of rice and water). You should see the lid stop 'bubbling' even though it may still be exuding steam.

6. In the mean time, cook the sauce. Then proceed to blanch the veg.

7. Once time is up, turn off the heat. Use chopstick to poke holes in the rice. Add the sliced pork and lap cheong carefully. Cover the lid and pour sesame soil or liquid lard around the rim. Turn the heat back up to high for 5 minutes to cook the raw ingredients. 

8. Once you hear sizzling sounds, it's ready to scorch the rice. To produce the scorched rice, wear mitts and rotate the pot for 5 minutes on high. You will know it's done when you can smell the scorched rice fragrance.

9. Turn off the flame. If using egg, add it now. Cover for 2 minutes. Then serve by adding the sauce. Mix at the table.

Recipe feedback

- Initially I followed the same recipe as using rice (2 small C) and right off the back, could smell the smell of burnt rice! So I've adjusted the recipe to include 4 small C rice or 3C big C.

IP Fu chok (beancurd skin with barley)

From Lookocherry with video. Traditionally uses gingko but I don't like gingko, so I've replaced with lotus seeds. Quantities are my estimation based on packet sizes or what's on hand.

Ingredients

½ C barley, washed and soaked for 15 mins

1 packet fu chok (make sure it's for dessert): break into little pieces, then wash and soak for 15 mins

100 to 200g rock sugar, to taste

1C lotus seeds, soaked in hot water for at least 1.5hr to rehydrate and then remove sprout removed

A few knotted pandan leaves

Method

1. Soak the barley and fu chok for 15 mins in room temp water and then discard the water.

2. In the IP, add the barley and fu chok. Cook using 'Manual' on High for 30 minutes. Allow to naturally release (otherwise it splatters everywhere and is very messy), about 40 minutes.

3. Remove the lid and note the fu chok still seems whole. However after boiling, it quickly breaks down. Add in the pandan leaves, the rock sugar and lotus seeds. Saute on high for 20 to 30 minutes until the lotus seeds are soft.

4. Serve hot or cold.

BBQ pork belly

Since trying this version of the BBQ pork belly, I found the skin easily too charred. Hence trying again with this video method by the famous DimSimLim. This recipe is also easy because there is no parboiling.

Ingredients

500g pork belly

5 spice powder

salt

white pepper

chicken powder

Splash of chinese cooking wine

Method

1. Using the spikes, poke holes in pork belly skin. Turn over to meat side and make some slits. 

2. Mix the powders in a bowl (no proportions were given but it looked like a lot of powder!) 

3. Score the meat. Dip the meat-side in the powders and be careful to avoid touching the skin. Rub the marinade into the meat.

4. Spritz the meat with chinese cooking wine.

5. Make an aluminium foil tray to cover the meat but leaving the skin exposed. Put on the BBQ, direct heat. Cover the lid.

6. Cook for 45 mins at 180 deg then 20 mins at full blast (200 to 220 deg C).

7. Chop and serve with mustard.

Recipe

- This is probably the least active time and less clean up compared to the other crackling belly pork recipes

- 

AF Roasted pork belly

After this recipe which used the BBQ to avoid splattering the oven, here's one for the AF. But I'm not sure I want to splatter my AF either! From this video by CCherryleungg

Ingredients

500g pork belly

Method

1. Place pork belly skin side down into a shallow pan, with 1 inch of water. Water only covers the skin rather than all the meat, to avoid cooking the meat. Bring to a boil. The purpose is to soften the skin. 

2. After boiling for 5 minutes, remove and allow to cool down. Use a knife or similar to poke tiny holes in the skin. This will let the skin 'explode' and achieve the bubbly crispy skin.

3. On the meat side, cut slits and rub in five-spice powder and salt. 

4. Use cling film to protect the meat. Then use paper towels to rub and towel dry the skin. Brush on vinegar and cake in salt.

5. Leave uncovered in the fridge to air dry, at least 6 hrs or preferably overnight.

6. Next day, preheat to 185 deg C and cook skin side up for 30 mins.

7. Then turn up to 200 deg C for 20 mins, skin side up.

8. Allow to slightly cool before chopping up. Serve with yellow mustard. 

Note: Google suggests 3 stage: 200 deg C for 20 to 30 mins then 160 deg C for 30 to 40 mins, then 200 deg C for 5 to 10 mins if still not crackling.

Fried skinless crispy pork belly

I have been reading up on making crispy crackling and bored with the usual methods of drying the crackling and then roasting then finally grilling. I came across 3 recipes which I'll try in succession.

This method from Chinesefood0805 video uses boiling to get rid of excess oil and smell, and to soften, then frying in its own fat to crisp it up. Although the cooking time is longer, it saves on the prep and marinating time. It is also less greasy and as a bonus, you get a tub of rendered lard! The downside though is first there is no skin, and second, there is no marinate so needs to be eaten with some kind of sauce or salt/pepper.

Ingredients

500g belly pork, preferably skin removed

Method

1. Add pork belly to a pot (lay flat in a single layer) and pour enough water to cover.

2. Add salt and bring to a boil.

3. Skim foam, cover and turn down heat. Cover and simmer for 25 mins.

4. Drain, remove and pat very dry.

5. Warm up a pan on medium low heat. Without adding oil, lay in a single layer and cover. Allow oil to render out. Cover to prevent splatting.

6. Once the oil starts exuding out, flipping frequently to ensure even browning.

7. Chop into bite-size and serve with condiments eg mustard or five-spice salt.

Receipe feedback

- Because I used the belly with skin, the skin turned out be super chewy. So it does have to use skinless pork belly

- The frying was relatively painless because I used a wok with a cover but otherwise there would be a lot of splatter on the stove and surrounding.

- There was a lot of active time - from boiling the pork to then letting it slowly exude oil. Neither activity meant total set and forget, so total active time was about 2 hrs, because it took a lot time to render the fat at low heat. And at the end, it only produced 2 tbsp of lard!

- However the upside is that there is now a stock that can be used to cook soup eg ramen soup, and 2 tbsp of lard for next time.

- Despite frying the belly pork in its own oil, and despite having bigger pieces than the video, the meat came out tough and hard. It was also only mild crispy.

HK custard steamed bao

I don't really know what the difference is between this recipe and the one which involves more ingredients such as 3 flours and salted butter that i used here but until I have time to try both (and i'm not really a fan of making custard from scratch), I thought I'd give this recipe a try. It is by the same blogger who gave me this highly successful black sesame bao that only needed one proofing, so I'm more keen to try this recipe. This recipe by LinXianShen again.

Being so easy to wrap, my shape is perfect!

Filling is a bit dry rather than the runny custard I was expecting

Custard 

Ingredients

4 egg yolks

150ml milk

30g corn starch

30g normal flour

1 tbsp sugar

30g oil or lard

Method

1. Pour ingredients into a non-stick saucepan or pot. Stir on a small fire. Stir until it comes together and is workable and can be folded, much like a dough. It should not stick to the pan.

2. Wrap with plastic wrap and it should touch the surface so the custard doesn't form a skin. Chill for at least 3 hours.

3. Divide into 10 portions and roll into balls.

Bao (makes 10)

Ingredients

400g flour (normal or bao flour)

5g sugar

4g yeast

200ml warm water

(Note: My flour package was 500g so I added in the extra 100g with 50g milk, which makes extra 2 kosong bao)

Method

1. Pour ingredients into a mixing bowl. With a pair of chopsticks, stir until the dough comes together into a claggy ball.

2. Knead until smooth, about 10 to 15 mins. Form a ball and tuck underneath to promote a smooth surface, 

3. Roll out into a rectangle, around ½ inch thick. Use a cutter to cut out circles of around 5cm diameter. [Alternatively, divide into 10 portions, roll into balls, then using the usual bao method to roll out a disc with thinner edges than at the centre.]

4. Wrap each custard ball in the disc and crimp together using bao wrapping technique. Turn it seam facing downwards. With palms, use a cupping motion to create a rounder ball.

5. Place each bao straight onto parchment into the steamer. Allow to proof for around 25 mins until the baos expand to about 1.5 times. Press a finger gently on the bao surface and the indentation should spring back.

6. Place the steamer on top of a wok of room temp water and turn up the flame to maximum. Steam for 15 minutes then turn off the fire and leave covered for 3 minutes. Serve immediately.

Recipe feedback

- Again another great recipe from LinXianShen! The filling is the BEST, so easy to wrap. However, it is very dry, but perhaps that is the cha chan ting type of custard bao.

- The dough isn't as pliable as the black sesame bao even though it's pretty much the same recipe but I still did about 13 to 14 minutes of kneading, this time in 29 deg weather compared to 23 deg weather. Maybe that makes all the difference. 

Summer yeasted Mantou and Bao (后酵母 method）

This mantou dough XiaoHong uses a different method with single proof by adding the yeast AFTER the dough has been kneaded. 

Ingredients

500g bao or regular flour

270g warm water

5g instant yeast + 5g water

Method

1. Mix the flour and water and knead until a dough forms. Cover and allow to rest for 15 minutes. The dough already comes out smooth.

2. In a small bowl, add 5g of instant yeast to 5g water. Mix until combined and bloomed.

3. Create a well in the dough and pour in. Slowly pull and fold from outside in and knead until combined for about 2 minutes.

4. Roll into a log and divide into around 10 pieces. Flatted and continue kneading and then form balls.

5. Place in a steamer lined with paper. Cover and allow to proof until 1.5 to 2x, until the dough springs back when gently depressed with a thumb.

6. With the steamer on top, turn on the flame to high and steam for 15 minutes. Turn off the fire and allow to rest for 3 minutes. The bao should be fluffy and moist.

Similarly the empty bao version by Little Goose Food  almost mixes the yeast in afterwards. This video describes a better method of making tall beautiful buns.

Ingredients

250g just boiled water

500g bao or regular flour

3g yeast

Method (makes 6)

1. Into the hot water, grab a handful of flour and put into the water. Use chopsticks to stir into paste.

2. Add the remaining flour and stir with chopsticks. This will yield a claggy dough. Use hands to gather into a ball. The hot water will break the gluten structures to make the buns more soft and bouncy.

3. Cover to rest for 10 mins.

4. Once it's relaxed, knead for 10 to 15 minutes until the surface is smooth. 

5. Press it flat into a rectangle and make an indentation in the centre. Add the yeast into the centre. Add around 1 to 2 tbsp of water just to dissolve the yeast. Roll up the dough and knead until the yeast is well incorporated, around 5 minutes. Using this method, it's easy to form a dough with a smooth surface.

6. Roll into a log and divide into 6 pieces. Knead each piece to release the gas, and form a ball with your palm. Then, roll to form a tall cone.

7. Place directly into the steamer onto parchment. Cover and allow to rest until 1.5x or until a finger indentation on the surface springs back.

8. Start a wok with water on high. Only when the water is rapidly boiling, put the steamer on top and steam for 15 minutes. Turn off the flame and rest for 3 minutes.

Similarly Chui Jie uses this recipe for summer. This recipe has 5g yeast with 250g water and 500g flour. She kneads 3x for around 5 minutes each, but rests in between each kneading. The dough is easier to knead than 15 mins upfront. She says using this method of adding yeast later, all the buns rise at the same time to the same size. She also starts the steaming from cold water.