Karaage 唐揚げ

There are several videos now trending about putting flour in oil when the oil is cold and then putting in bite-sized pieces. Magically the chicken is coated with the flour and deep fried!

The first reel I saw by CookingBoBo involves using only a little oil. Put in 2 tbsps or so of potato or corn starch in enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Whisk until combined. Marinate the chicken in ginger, soya, etc (wet ingredients possible). Turn on the fire and cook by continually turning each bite-sized piece. Once the pieces are golden brown, remove. Put in more tbsps of flour and repeat.

Next one I saw by leeszekee is similar by starting with enough cold oil to cover the bottom of the pan and mixing in 2 tbsp of corn starch.

This recipe by YumMakers uses midwings. It starts by placing plain flour in hot oil. Marinate chicken in spice powders (eg salt, pepper, garlic) and some wine. Add oil so that the spices can stick onto the wings. Put all the wings in the hot oil. She put a lot in and didn't seem to stir because the pot is almost full! Somehow the wings 'seem' to cook evenly.

5 black grain mantou

From this FB recipe by MiaoVibe.

Ingredients (makes 12 four-inch wide)

50g black sesame seeds

20g black rice (I substituted with 20g raisins)

20g black beans

20g blackberries (I substituted with 20g frozen blueberries)

10g black goji (I used regular)

10g walnuts

400ml water

600g flour (I used bread flour)

5g instant yeast

1 tbsp white sugar

pinch of salt

1 tbsp lard or butter

Notice the size difference (the bottom 6) of the second batch that had 30 mins extra proofing (due to waiting for the first batch to steam) compared to the first batch

Method

1. Add the grains, walnuts and black fruits to a blender with 400g of water. Using the Soya milk mode, blend. Allow to cool down.

2. Pour the flour on a table. Create a well and add the yeast, sugar and salt (keep salt away from the yeast). Mix well.

3. Pour in the grain mixture. Use hands to knead till no flour is left. Use a scraper to gather the dough if it helps.

4. Place in a bowl and cover. Allow to proof for 1 hr until about it grows to about 1.5x.

5. Turn out of the bowl and deflate. Knead and the longer you do so, the softer the bun.

6. Flour the surface well. Form into a log and cut into equal sized pieces. Form a ball with each. Makes about 12 (approx 108 to 110g of dough each).

7. Place directly in the steamer and place over a wok of warm water to proof for 15 to 30 mins. 

8. Remove the steamer and turn on the fire till it starts boiling. Put the steamer back on the wok and steam on medium high for 30 minutes. Leave covered for 10 minutes after switching off the flame.

Recipe feedback

- Overall a very wet dough. I didn't use mixer and mixed by hand throughout.

- The second batch that had an extra 30 minutes of proofing while waiting for the first batch to steam came out so much fluffier! A definite must-do if time permits.

- So far, those recipes that I used bao flour here and here and here all using KA have been most successful. They have been easy to shape too but the issue is that their 'face' never comes out smooth and they always tend to flatten and crawl out sideways. 

- If only this recipe's dough wasn't so wet and difficult to work with, it would have been great for wrapping bao. Their 'faces' and shape came out smooth and round!

Lazy chocolate caramel gateau

The original recipe by Ann Coo involves using a small 6 to 7 inch pan, Valrhona chocolate and baking at 170 deg C for 20 mins. She said this was a lazy recipe and she's right, because this is only my 2nd recipe blog post in 2025, I ain't got time for using and washing up a mixer! Further, I decided to go all in and change up the pan size and pan all in once without trialling along the way! I expect this to go horribly wrong but what the heck, I don't have time to experiment and try. As such, all proportions have been increased by ⅓ (aka added an extra egg) to account for the bigger pan size (I used my 8inch round). 

Ingredients 

180g (1 bar) hopped baking chocolate (Valrhona if possible, I only had Cadbury)

40g caramel chips

120g sugar

1.5 tsp vanilla extract

3 large eggs

120g butter

pinch of salt

52.5g plain flour or 80g cake flour

Method

1. Melt butter and chocolate using double boiler. Allow to cool down.

2. Separately, hand whisk eggs and sugar until dissolved. Combine with melted butter and chocolate.

3. Sieve in flour and fold in.

4. Pour the mixture into 8 inch round pan and bake 170 deg C for 30 to 35 mins. (After 30min with good temp control, the top was still wobbly so I switched off the oven and left it inside for a further 5 mins until skewer insert comes out clean.)

5. Let it sit in the pan for 10 minutes then invert onto rack to cool. Serve warm or totally cooled with more granache.

Receipe feedback

By happy accident, my choc bar was only 180g so I topped up with what I thought was meltable choc chips. They turned out to be caramel chips and the result is amazing!

Thankfully I had also cut the sugar otherwise it would be too sweet.

In the end, it was a bit on the sweet side (imagine if I hadn't remove the sugar!) but not cloyingly sweet.

The texture was very fudgey chewy with slight papery crispy top, overall similar to brownie.

I honestly think maybe 6 to 7 inch cake is enough because it's so rich otherwise, it will take a long time for 2 ppl to finish!