Peanut Min jiang kueh

I have previously tried making the red bean version of this with an overnight proofing.   

From Meatmen's recipe with video is much simplier as it doesn't involve any overnight yeast. However, the recipe yields a more spongey - cakey rather than crispy texture, probably due to the addition of egg. I like both recipes depending on time available and also what I feel like eating.

Ingredients (2 thinner pancakes, I doubled original recipe below for 4 heftier pancakes)

260g plain flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp instant yeast

pinch of salt

2 tbsp sugar

2 eggs

320ml water (warmed to around 37 to 46 deg C)

Filling

100g roasted ground peanut

30g white sesame seeds, toasted

30g sugar

Method

1. Mix all the dry ingredients. Create a well in the centre. 

2. Add the egg and beat in the well, then add the water. Incorporate the flour around the well slowly at first until everything is moistened. Break up any lumps if you can.

3. Let the batter rest covered for 30 minutes. 

4. In the mean time, prepare the filling. Lightly toast the sesame seeds. Once cooled, combine with ground peanut and sugar until evenly mixed. Set aside.

4. Heat up a HCP. Oil the bottom with 2 tbsp of oil and spread it around. Wipe off the excess with a kitchen towel.

5. On medium heat, ladle on 3 small soup scoops of batter. Swirl around the pan to cook evenly close and lock the lid. Cook for 3 minutes then turn down the heat to medium low. 

6. Open up to check if the top has coagulated. Sprinkle on the peanut mixture, about 3 - 4 tbsp, until the top is covered evenly. Close back the HCP for a further 2 minutes. 

6. The sides should have shrunk away. Flip half the pancake over and flip out onto a plate. Serve immediately.

Peanut soup for 冬至

This is ah balling, tang yuan in peanut soup for winter solstice. No brainer for tang yuan, comes out of a packet. But the peanut took lots of work. I read on the internet that no matter how long you slow cook peanuts, they remain hard. I came across this recipe and thought I'd give it a try:

http://lilyng2000.blogspot.com.au/2008/08/introductory-text-picture-goes-here.html

Problem is that despite following the instructions, I still lacked the pressure cooker, so it didn't work! So even though I soaked the peanuts overnight, soaked them in alkaline water, but without the pressure cooker, it's all useless. Nonetheless, it's a great accompaniment for the tang yuan for Dong Zhi, which was really the whole point of the exercise anyway.

Ingredients
300g peanuts
10 cups of water
1/2 cup of rock sugar (top up to taste)
1 tbsp baking powder (perhaps I should have used pure bicarb like the recipe?)

Method

1) Soak the peanuts overnight.

2) Soak the peanuts in the alkali solution for at least 4 hours. Rinse and soak for half hour to remove the alkali, then rinse and soak again. Repeat once more.

3) Here, I slow cooked with 6 hours. The recipe recommends pressure cooking for 30 to 40 minutes from pressurisation. Unfortunately the volume of my pressure cooking is quite small but next time I'll give it a try.

4) Serve with tang yuan!

3 ingredient peanut butter cookies

I want to try this...
http://onepotchef.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/3-ingredient-peanut-butter-cookies.html

Fishball soup

This is a simple dish but honestly, do you know how hard it is to make the soup base? Most hawker stalls I go to, the soup ends up tasting like dishwater - the 'soup' is literally the stuff they use to 'wash' the noodles in before serving it in your bowl, with lots of MSG and salt added. Blech.

Thanks to my new cube mate and mother of a toddler, she cued me in on the use of yellow soya beans and ikan bilis. I've often seen soya beans end up in my niang dou fu so her idea can't be too far wrong! I've added my own ginger and other stuff and wow - a dark earthy MSG-tasting soup without any MSG!

Ingredients (feeds 2)

For stock

1.5l water

3 handfuls of soya beans

3 handful peanuts

2 handfuls of ikan bilis (the ones with heads on)

1 thumb-sized ginger, sliced

1 tbsp chinese rice wine
1 star anise

salt to taste

For fishball soup
1 pkt fishballs
3 tbsp dong chai
1 bunch tang-o

Method1) Put in the stock ingredients to boil for 1 to 1.5 hours. Add salt and pepper approx 5 min near the end.
2) Drain the stock (this step is very important, unless u like eating all that stuff. This step affects the enjoyment of the soup!)
3) Put in the fishbals and dong chai and boil briefly until the fish balls float.
4) Before serving, throw in the tang-o. The heat will slightly wilt the vegetable.
5) This can be served with plain steamed rice, or add noodles(I like using dong fen or bee hoon) at this point