IP Taiwanese beef brisket and tendon soup noodles

Because I love beef soup so much, I just had to try a different style. After the pho attempt which essentially took the whole day to make, I didn't think it was sustainable. So again I tried with brisket and tendon as the cooking times are similar. I also cheated by using Korean beef dashima of adding in bones. I did taste the soup after cooking and it was hardly tasty enough but with a tsp of dashima, wow, what a difference!

My soup is adapted from Red House Spice and SaltnPepperHere which essentially show that spicy doubanjiang and tomato paste, along with various herbs and spice give Taiwanese beef soup its distinctive slightly spicy flavour that differentiates it from pho.

Ingredients

250g brisket

250g tendon

1 tbsp doubanjiang (2 tbsp if wanting a saltier soup because the noodle tends to 'suck' up the salt)

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 medium onion, halved

1 small thumb sized nob of ginger, roughly sliced

6 crushed garlic cloves

1 spring onion, white part, chopped

2 tbsp shaoxing wine or mijiu

3 tbsp dark soya sauce

2 tbsp light soya sauce

1 tbsp rock sugar, yellow sugar or regular sugar

1 tsp beef dashima

Water to cover

Pepper to taste

Noodles - either bee hoon or authentic Taiwanese noodles

Spice pack comprising

½ cinnamon sticl

1 tsp cardommon powder

1 star anise

3 cloves

1 tsp sichuan peppercorns

1 tsp white peppercorns (optional)

1 tsp coriander powder

2 bay leaves

1 cut tomatoes

To serve with (optional)

1 preserved mustard green, sliced

1 bunch Mustard greens (fresh) or beanspouts

Green part of spring onion, sliced

Method

1. Soak the brisket and tendon in water with a splash of cooking wine. Then, bring to boil and cook for around 5 minutes until the foam surfaces. Drain the brisket and tendon and throw out the water.

2. Prepare the spice pack. If time permits, lightly toast the spices in a dry pan to bring out the flavour but avoid scorching the spices.

3. Lightly saute the doubanjiang and tomato paste in the IP with the onions, ginger, scallions and ginger.

4. Place everything in the IP except the sugar and light soya sauce. Cover with enough water. If using the IP, the water should not exceed ⅔ of the pot.

5. Cook on Soup mode for 1 hr, then 25 to 30 min natural release to avoid splattering when releasing.

6. While the beef soup is cooking, prepare the noodles and veg eg if using fresh veg, blanch them.

7. Skim off any oil. Remove the brisket and tendon to cool down. Taste the soup and add the light soya and sugar.

8. Assemble the dish. In a bowl with the noodles, placed sliced tendon and brisket, preserved veg and fresh veg. Ladle on the soup. Serve with the green part of spring onion.

Tangzong after-yeasted mantou

Based on my previous bao/mantou post, this video recipe by BaoBiZhen uses tangzhong and after-yeasted method to make mantou that are fluffy and soft yet have a shiny white skin. The whiteness is contributed by the lard, the moistness and bounce is a result of tangzhong and the after-yeasted method means that the gluten can develop before it's made to ferment so it stays soft for longer. There is only one fermentation so it's quicker to make.

Ingredients (makes 10 to 14)

100g flour

100g boiling water

400g flour

150g water

1 tbsp lard (or replace with corn oil)

5g yeast

1 tbsp water

Method

1. Make the tangzhong by combining the 100g each of flour and boiling water. Mix with chopsticks until no dry flour remains.

2. Once the is cool enough to handle, add the remaining 400g flour and another 150g water (room temp in summer or warm water in winter). Mix with chopsticks until a shaggy dough forms.

3. Add the lard. Knead till combined and then cover and allow to rest for 5 to 10 mins.

4. Knead for about 3 minutes and it's smooth. Mix 5g of yeast into 1 tbsp of water and then use a rubbing motion to knead into the dough. Takes about 3 minutes.

5. Once incorporated, roll the dough into a long log and cut into portions. Knead by folding and rolling (see the video) around 20 to 30 times per portion. Then roll into a ball before kneading it into a cylinder.

6. Place directly on parchment in the steaming basket. Either leave it to proof at room temp in summer, or over a wok of hot water in winter. (A trick - fill a bottle cap to the brim with leftover dough. Once the dough rises above the cap by about half the height of the cap, it's ready.

7. Place on the wok and switch on the heat. From the time the steam starts, steam on high heat: 18 mins (for 8 XL buns), 15 mins (for 10 L buns),  12 mins (for 12 M buns) and 10 mins (for 14 S buns). Once time's up, switch off the fire and allow to steam further for 3 minutes.

Thin crust pizza

I just discovered the last pizza dough recipe I used was 10 years ago and I haven't made pizza from scratch since! I decided to try this recipe by Kitchn which looked easy enough. The draw was using regular flour rather than bread flour and had minimal proofing. What you really want in terms of prep work on a weekday evening! I doubled the recipe to make 4 pizzas, so the dough can be made once and then eaten over 2 nights depending on the size of the eaters.

Ingredients (makes four 10 to 12 inch pizzas)

4C flour

1½C lukewarm water 

2 tsp yeast

2 pinches of salt

Ingredients for pizza (eg tomato paste, salami, ham, pineapple, olives, pizza, etc).

Around 1 tbsp oil

Chirizo and salami pizza

Method

1. Mix the flour with the water, yeast and salt.

2. Knead for 5 to 8 minutes. Ball up the dough, then cover and proof for around 10 to 15 minutes while prepping the pizza topping. At this point, I saved half the dough for the next night in the fridge and proofed the rest.

3. At this point, the recipe recommends putting an upturned pan in the oven preheated to 220 deg C, and place the pizza on top. Afraid of dropping the pizza when placing it on an upturned pan either putting in or taking it out of the oven, I didn't bother. However it would probably have helped to either do this or bake the pizza base blind to avoid the ingredients making the base soggy.

4. Stretch out the dough as thin as possible, using a rolling pin to help. If the dough keeps shrinking, leave to rest covered for a further 10 minutes. I roll it out as thin as I could then placed it on in the pizza pan. I then used my fingers to push it outwards to the pan's edges so it made a tiny lip at the pan's edge.

5. Brush on a thin layer of oil on the base. Spread on the tomato paste then place the toppings. Try not to stack toppings on top of each other. I did lay a thin layer of cheese on top on tomato paste before my other ingredients, then finished off with another thin layer of cheese on top of the toppings. For wet ingredients like olives and pineapple, it's best to drain as dry as possible and even use a paper towel to blot dry. 

6. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes, checking frequently after the 8 minute mark. 

Feedback

- The dough is fine and easy enough to make. The issue perhaps is with the process. I removed the pizza from the oven once the cheese was nicely browned but just before it burnt, around 10 minutes. However because the pizza base wasn't pre-baked, 10 minutes only just cooked the dough but it was slightly soggy whereas the cheese has already melted almost to the point of burning. So especially after I used more soggy ingredients (olive and pineapples) on my second attempt, the base was more soggy compared to just chirizo, cheese and salami. I was afraid the oil from these meat products would make the pizza soggy but they didn't.

Hawaiian pizza

Tangzong dumpling-inspired tall mantou and bao

I tried 5 different bao recipes in 2025, probably my most prolific trial of bao methods. I shall exclude the 5 Black grain mantou attempt which is not directly comparable because cooked blended grain mixture was integrated into the bao dough itself rather than the filling. Otherwise it's a standard mix and one-proof receipt. I'm also excluding the Custard recipe which I didn't try but noted it down because of the filling, where oil is added in 3 stages like brioche. 

The next three are all hand kneading. There is the summer yeasted mantou which adds the yeast water in after the dough has been kneaded. It has a shorter proofing time due to summer and will apparently make taller beautiful buns. The last 2 trials are by the same blogger which focuses on the fillings. First is black sesame filling which has a milk bun with very short proofing time. The second focuses on the custard filling using the same method and a short proofing time.

This latest mantou recipe ZhenMaDaiWaJi uses the scalded flour method often used with making the stretchy skin associated with dumplings. Basically tangzhong. This is also hand kneading with minimal proofing time. This method is similar to Little Goose Food mantou recipe who also uses scalded flour. Goose explains that adding just boiled water introduces a fragrance to the scalded flour and cooks the gluten. However, Goose kneads the dough and rests it for 10 mins, then kneads to smooth surface. Then she separately kneads in yeasted water and knead for 2 mins to incorporate. This 'later yeasted method', she explains, results in a smoother skin.

Both videos describes a better method of making tall beautiful buns.

Ingredients (makes 14)

30g flour

250g just boiled water

500g flour

3g instant yeast

Method

1. Mix the 30g flour with just boiled water. 

2. Once dissolved, add in 500g flour. Use chopsticks to stir and make a claggy dough.

3. When the dough is warm to the touch (ie not scalingly hot still), prepare the yeast. Add the yeast to 1 tbsp of water and stir to dissolve. Add the yeast mixture to the dough and mix to form a claggy dough.

4. Knead on a benchtop until the skin is smooth. Better yet, let it relax for 10 minutes after kneading.

5. Without needing to proof, go ahead and form the balls. Roll and knead each and tuck into a ball so that it forms a smooth skin. Here's the main tip - form tall cylinders using the cupping action. (see the videos, Little Goose gives a better step-by-step tutorial. Form a ball first then put on the surface and roll between the palms to form tall cylinders.)

6. Place each on parchment. Put in a steamer, on top of a wok filled with warm water. Let it proof until 1.5x the size. The bao would have grown without flattening and expanding sideways. When you lightly indent the side with a finger, it will spring back out.

7. The water should have returned to room temp by now. Turn on the heat and steam for 15 mins counting from once the water boils. 

Pretty pleats and the inside is moist and even has 'gravy'!

If using filling, a very similar method by QiaoXieXXiaoYu with different proportions.

Bao ingredients

50g flour 

250g boiling water (slightly more if flour is too dry)

450g flour

3-5g instant yeast

Filling ingredients

500g minced pork

2 tbsp light soya sauce

1 tbsp dark soya sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp bullion powder

Pinch of salt

Dash of white pepper

30g lard, liquid

50g spring onion, chopped

100g infused water (ginger, spring onion infusion, sichuan peppercorn)

Method

1. Add the just off the boil water to the 50g flour and mix.

2. Add in the 450g flour and mix. Add in the yeast (she didn't let it cool down!). Knead for about 10 minutes (far from windowpane and smooth). Depressing the finger indentations into the dough doesn't cause the indentations to spring back up. Cover and proof until 2x the size, approx 70mins.

3. Meanwhile prepare the filling. Mix all the ingredients except the water. Mix the meat with chopsticks in one direction until sticky.

4. Add in the water a bit at a time and continue stirring in 1 direction.

5. Add in the liquid lard and chopped spring onions. Refrigerate.

6. The bao sld have proofed sufficiently. Knead to degas on the benchtop surface. The surface should be very smooth now and a depressed indentation springs back. 

7. Roll into a long log. Cut into chunks. Roll each chunk flat to degas then roll into a ball. (See the video).

8. Roll each wrapper flat with a chinese rolling pin. I used this method by Ah Cheen to make dumpling skins which involves applying pressure on alternating sides to automatically produce a very round-shaped dumpling skin. This only works if you don't need a skin with a slightly thicker centre and thin edges.

9. When adding filling, I used this very detailed bao wrapping method by LiFenFen to produce many uniform crimps. Cup to smoothen the surface and then roll between both palms to form a tall cylinder.

Documenting my attempts over the years (not exhaustive), where I nearly gave up around 2023-2024 and just didn't bother pleating anymore. I finally did it thanks to this video!

10. Place in a steamer on parchment. Place steamer over a wok with hot water to proof for 10 to 15 mins. Once a finger indentation springs back, it's time for steaming. (basically I just waited until I finished wrapping all the remaining bao).

11. Once the water has boiled, steam for 12 mins. Turn off the heat and allow to rest for further 3 minutes before opening the cover. Skin will be super elastic and bouncy (like dumpling skin).

Recipe feedback

- Definitely a keeper as far as ease of handling the dough, keeping the pleats distinct, and minimal proofing time required! As far as a hand kneading recipe goes, this is pretty close to prefect. Sure the bao isn't as bouncey and fluffy as with longer proofing but frankly, this is pretty close!

- Because the dough is more elastic than fluffy, it more closely resembles dumpling dough. This bao would make a great bao jian fried and steamed on the pan, with crispy bottom.

- Update: There's a recipe that combines both the scalded flour AND post-yeasted method. The scalded flour traps the moisture whereas adding the yeast afterwards is supposed to make the dough more easy to knead and thus produce a smoother (less dimplied) shinier skin.

Quick kaya

Jun&Tonic says he can make kaya on the stovetop in 10 minutes. 

Ingredients

1C coconut cream

50g (¼C) white sugar

50g (¼C) brown sugar

2g (¼tsp) salt

4 egg yolks

2 pandan leaves optional

1. Combine ingredients in a pot. Heat and stir for 10 minutes with a whisk.

2. Switch to spatula as it gets claggier. Stop when you get a thick syrupy consistency. It will be thinner than store bought.

AF chicken

In the quest for the perfect airfried chicken, I've tried so many different recipes including panko and at a higher temp, various Har Jeong gai versions including with tapioca flour, corn flour, cornflour and panko. However, nothing succeeded because there's always a lot of dry flour left behind despite spraying with oil, the batter becomes hard or dry so that it's crunchy rather than crispy, or one side is soggy.

However certain tips seem to be recurrent: (1) using all mid wings, (2) placing mid wings on a rack when airfrying, (3) not turning over so that it has enough time to airfry 'dry' in its own oil on the more oily side, and the oil can drain off.

The best batter seems to come from FongFamilyFlat, which uses equal parts of corn and rice flour. And the bonus? If you have lots of leftover flour, add an egg and make pajeon!

The powders that I've suggested are just suggestions but feel free to use whatever powders in the flour (eg pepper, sichuan pepper, sand ginger, etc) to flavour.

Ingredients

1kg of mid wings

1 tbsp wine

1 tbsp soya sauce

1 tsp sugar

Paprika

Juice of ginger

Pepper

2 tbsp of corn flour

⅓C rice flour

⅓C corn flour

Five spice power

Ginger and/or garlic powder

Salt to taste

Method

1. Marinate the chicken with the wine, white pepper, soya sauce, sugar, paprika, juice of ginger, and pepper. Mix well then add the 2 tbsp of corn flour. Mix well and set aside to marinade for at least 2 hours.

2. In a flat tray or baking tin, mix the rice and corn flours, five spice powders and any other powders.

3. Drain the chicken from the marinade but no need to pat dry. Coat with the flours.

4. Place mid wings on a rack with a tray to catch the oil underneath. Leave the skin side up and spritz with oil. Bake at 200 deg C for 24 minutes per side. If you don't have a rack, then place non-skin side up and turn halfway (ie 12 mins per side) so that you end up with skin side up.

Feedback

- The crust is perfect! Not hard and tacky and delivers a crisp rather than a crunch as baked tends to

- Colour is perfect too, 12 minutes delivers a nice golden brown.

- I didn't put it on a rack and baked the skin-side up for the full 24 minutes and the underside was soggy from the exuded oil.

IP Pho beef stock

The butcher gave us free beef bones for the dogs, but they were so big and messy, I decided to do the Asian thing and make soup.

I have never made beef stock before, but I knew I had to use the IP otherwise I'll be boiling stock for 2 days and wasting a lot of gas. I asked Gemini for the best method and this is what it told me. Ingredients based on the size of the IP so I had to improvise. The smell of raw beef stomach and bones is awful so the initial boiling and skimming to produce a clear soup that doesn't smell can't be omitted.

The recipe has been stepped and different ingredients staggered to fit a small-ish 6 quart pot and to account for the various cooking times to avoid overcooking ingredients. They are listed here if mixing and matching ingredients.

- Bones with marrow - 1hr 50 to 2h, NR 40 mins (the longer the NR, the less the splatter). For bones with marrow again another 2 times or IP for 3h!

- Tendon - 50 mins, NR 10 to 20 mins (not sensitive to overcooking)

- Tripe (except omaksum) - 50 mins, NR 10 to 20 mins (sensitive to over-cooking)

- Omaksum is added last minute and just brought to the boil.

- Brisket - 50 minutes, NR 20 - 40 mins (less sensitive to overcooking ie from firm to fall off the bone)

Ingredients

250g brisket (I used conical beef)

250g tendon

250g to 400g tripe (mix of honeycomb, blanket)

100 to 200g omasum

500 to 1kg beef bones

1/5 C cooking wine

Aromatics: ½ white onion, around 10 cloves of garlic, 3 thumb-sized ginger, sliced

Spices: sichuan peppercorn, white peppercorns, cinnamon stick, fennel seeds, star anise, cloves, and black cardamon. Toast gently in dry pan if possible then transfer to a spice bag.

Method

1. In a big pot, add a splash of wine. Bring the bones and tendon to a boil and boil for 10 minutes. Dump the water and wash out the bones and tendon. 

2. Wash out the pot. Now add the stomach (except omasum) and brisket, and repeat boiling for 10 minutes. Again, dump the water and wash out the stomach.

3. In the IP, add half the aromatics and boil the bones for 1h, natural release 30 mins or longer. Without the natural release, the soup will splatter everywhere.

4. Skim whatever fat and scum. Add the tendon and boil for 50 minutes natural release 30 to 50 minutes.  

5. Remove the bones and most of the aromatics. Set aside any meat from the bones and the tendons. Once cold, chop up the tendons. Remove half of the stock otherwise the pot will be too full.

6. Add the tripe and the brisket to the stock, add fresh aromatics and the spice bag. Boil for 50 minutes and then allow it to naturally release for 30 to 40 minutes. Remove the aromatics and spice bag. Once the brisket is cool, slice into thin slices.

7. Assemble the pho with bean sprouts, basil, kway teow and then pile on the meat and tripe.

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 it, 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 chopped chunkily, which I used.

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 enough oil to cover about ¾ of the pan (not too much otherwise it splashes, which is dangerous! Allow the oil to smoke slightly (but not too much otherwise the oil is too hot). Add on a veg to test - if it sizzles, it's ready. 

6. 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. 

7. 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.

8. When it can slide around, time to flip. Carefully flip with 2 spatula or if you're brave enough, flip in one go! (preferably pour away the excess oil first to prevent splatter, flip the return the oil to the pan) Continue rotating the pan and sliding the pancake, and adding more oil around the edges as required.

9. 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 it's ready and too low heat will either take forever, cause the oil the absorb into the jeon, or cause the pancake to stick to the pan. Then repeat until all the batter is used up.

10. 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 (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.

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.

3-flour Custard bao redux

This blog is littered with bao disasters, including this custard creamed bao that went so wrong (dense, raw and ugly and collapsed, using single proofing) I never tried custard or creamed corn-fillings again. I had also tried a milk bao that used 2 flours (cake and plain) but needed 2 proofings of about an hr each. It was nothing to write home about but relatively easy to work with. There was also a char siu bao dough that used normal flour, wheat starch, vinegered water with baking power but despite all that work, it looked ugly. While easy to work with, it was too stretchy and tore easily, and instead of rising, it grew sideways and was too flat. 

This recipe by Ruyi attempts to remedy all these attempts which uses 3 flours, oil and baking powder in an attempt to create fluffy dim sum bao. The video is particularly helpful with how to wrap and shape so that the buns come out round and smooth. 

Ingredients

Custard filling

3 room temp egg yolks, try to remove as much white as possible

150ml milk

75g sugar

20g cake flour

50g salted butter (it must be salted or the butter will separate from the custard)

1. Whisk the egg yolks then add sugar and whisk till pale.

2. Add the cake flour and mix well then set aside.

3. Heat up the salted butter and milk on medium heat and stir once in a while until small bubbles form. Do not boil. Remove from the stove.

4. Quickly whisk the yolk mixture and slowly drizzling in half the scaled milk in a steady stream. Continue to whisk and pour back into the pot and back onto a medium heat.

5. Once the mixture starts to thicken, switch to low heat. Continue to whisk until lump and remove into a bowl. Cover with cling film right onto the custard to prevent it forming a skin.

6. Fridge for min 3 hrs or even overnight.

Alternatively just make instant custard filling

170ml milk

3 tbsp custard powder

2½ tbsp sugar

1. Combine the custard powder, milk and sugar in a pot. Bring to a boil but stirring constantly otherwise it will boil over.

2. Alternatively use a microwave at small increments at 50 to 80% power otherwise it boils over, been there done that! 1min 30s at 1000W.

3. Also keep in the cover and keep in the fridge for at least 3 hours or best overnight. 

Dough (makes 10)

160g superfine (9.5% protein)/HK/Bao flour (normal flour will yield a chewier dough)

40g cake flour

30g wheat starch

45g icing sugar

½ tsp baking powder

¾ tsp instant yeast

130ml room temp water

30ml veg oil

1. In a large bowl, add all the ingredients except the oil. Use a chopstick to ensure all the ingredients are combined.

2. Add the cooking oil in 3 batches and knead in until dough feels smooth, about 10 mins.

3. Divide the dough into 30 equal portions of around 43-44g each. Cover with damp towel and rest for 5 minutes.

4. Roll out one ball at a time with a thicker centre. Flatten to around 9.5 cm disc.

5. Divide the custard into 10 balls and roll each roughly into a ball.

6. In the centre of each dough disc, flatten the custard into the centre and cupping your hand, use a spoon to push the filing into the 'cup' formed by your hand. Pleat to seal and turn over onto the table. Using your sides of your palms, rotate to form a tall cylindrical shape rather than round ball. As it proofs, it will expand sideways and become the bao shape we want instead of a flattened mess.

7. Transfer to a lined steaming rack. Allow to proof until 1.5 to 2x. When depressed gently, the dough should spring back.

8. Place straight onto a steamer and turn on to high heat and steam for 15 minutes from room temp. Once done, turn off the fire and leave covered for another 10 minutes.

9, Best served warm but remove from the water to avoid getting soggy.

10. Keep in the fridge and steam for 10 minutes on high heat to reheat. Else store in the freezer and steam on high heat from frozen for 15 minutes. Custard sld be eaten when the bao is warm otherwise it is hard.

Black sesame bao with black sesame filling

I last tried a black sesame bao here with minimal kneading but both the dough and filling were too wet making it too hard to work with; and again here as a black sesame mantou that was also a very wet dough. This is a recipe with minimal kneading and proofing by LinXianShen.

Filling (makes 1 cereal bowl volume of filling)

100g roasted black sesame powder

15g glutinous rice flour

40g white sugar

20g lard

250g water

1. Put in a pot and on low fire, heat until it bubbles and turns into a sticky slurry (still quite liquidy). 

2. Put in the fridge to harden.

Bao dough (makes 10)

400g bao or regular flour

25g roasted black sesame powder

1 tbsp sugar

4g instant yeast

½ C of warm milk (use more or less as needed)

1. Combine with a chopstick until no more dry flour.

2. Roll into a dough. Knead for about 10 to 15 minutes until smooth.

3. Roll out into an oblong, about ½ inch thick. Use a 4 or 5" cutter to stamp out circles.

4. Using about 2 chinese tablespoons of cold filling, encase in the bao skin. Make into round buns and place in a steaming basket.

5. Cover and proof for 20 mins.

6. Turn on the flame to high (water from room temp) and steam for 13 mins. Turn off the fire and leave covered for 3 mins.

Recipe feedback

- Compared to the previous black sesame bao, this recipe is perfect! The filling amount is just enough and the dough is very workable. Shows that you don't need oil in the dough to make it pliable.

- Only issue is I forgot to roast and grind the sesame BEFORE making the filling (so I put it in the food processor after cooking), and also couldn't be bothered to grind the white sesame seeds (I ran out of black) for the dough. It turned out well because it gave the bao some crunch!

- I thought the lack of proofing time would make the bao hard but i was wrong! I really hand kneaded for 15 minutes with all my newfound arm power and then rested for maybe 10 mins while I prepared the steamer and washed up, before wrapping and forming the baos. Also, the bao only got 20 minutes at the end to proof, so I was worried cos they hardly seemed to have grown in size. Steaming at full heat really caused it to poof up so much that they all stuck together and to my steamer!

- Tip - really roll out the dough as large as possible (leaving the centre thicker) cos the filling is very liquid even after being in the fridge for 6 hours. The tip of cupping the palm to hold the dough and then 'applying' the filling onto the dough worked; then pleat, crimp and seal as per usual bao technique. Even though I then turned the seam over onto the parchment and the shape wasn't totally round, bao came out ok and didn't look too weird with the pleats underneath.

Chocolate burnt basque cheesecake

From my favourite auntie Kathrine Kwa's collection. My previous 2 recipe attempts either were too much work because no beater was used, or used a blender but then the air caused it to rise too fast and then it looked ugly (but correct basque look!). Both recipes used a high temperature (230deg C) so it would rise and brown nicely (but have to watch like a hawk) while the inside remains jiggly. However due to that high temp, they would crack too. Hence this recipe uses a lower temperature more akin to baking Japanese-style souffle cheesecake sans water bath, but baked for longer and without switching off the oven (to prevent falling and cracking). Will this yield more consistent and pretty results?

I also decided to revert to JOC's method of slowly blending everything in to incorporate as little air as possible, hoping if there is less air, it won't collapse as dramatically. Her recipe kept it almost like a baked custard and used corn starch but because I didn't beat it at all so substituted cake flour to give it more structure.

Ingredients

500g cream cheese (2 packets Philly), softened

120g sugar

5 eggs

250ml whipping cream (she used 200ml but I only had a 250ml pack)

250g melted dark chocolate (70% cocoa)

10g cocoa powder

10g cake flour 

Pinch of salt

Method

1. Prepare a 8 inch pan in the traditional basque method with foil and 2 layers of crumpled parchment. 

2 Meanwhile, melt choc bar over bain marie or in microwave on small increments. 

3. Next, melt in the cream cheese.

4. Once incorporated, add the sugar and stir until well combined.

5. Switch of the heat. I kept in the bain marie because this recipe has no oil so I was afraid it would harden. Add eggs one at a time and beat well after each. Make sure to only add the next egg when the previous one has been combined, otherwise it becomes hard to keep it lump free once more liquid goes in.

6. Transfer to a bigger mixing bowl if needed. Add in the whipping cream in and beat lightly, but don't overbeat and incorporate too much air.

7. Lastly add the melted chocolate and use a spatula to stir in. Once mostly combined, you can return to the beater at low speed.

8. Sift in the cocoa and cake flour, and pinch of salt.

9. Pour into a lined 8" cake tin. Lightly tap on the countertop to dispel bubbles.

10. Bake on the middle shelf at 220 deg C for 30 mins. Grill with upper heat for 2 to 3 mins until top is darker.

11. Remove from oven and leave in tin for 10 mins to cool so it doesn't crack or shrink. Top sld still be slightly jiggly.

12. Once slightly cooled, remove from tin but do not remove the paper. Continue to let it come to room temp. Chill in fridge for at least 6 hrs or best overnight.

13. To cut cleanly, use a knife dipped in warm water and wipe after each cut with damp towel.

Feedback

- Even though the temp was lowered by 10 deg C, it still cracked! But I believe this had more to do with the basque-style of lining the tin with crumpled parchment and my cake 'caught' on the craggy edges and tore itself.