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.

Milk bread with filling (sponge method)

From the comparison recipes, decided to try HappyGoKathy (video and write up) based on her sausage octopus buns. This recipe was highly recommended by Yanna. According to the blogger, the bread keeps moist even after a few days. The recipe uses fridge-cold yeast sponge which works best in summer when other breads can end up over-proofing in the heat.

Sponge

210g bread flour

135ml water, finger warm, around 35 deg C

Instant yeast 3g

1. The night before, combine the ingredients.

2. Knead for 5 minutes then store in a covered container overnight for at least 15-17 hrs.

Main dough

Ingredients

90g bread flour

12g milk powder

25g sugar

60-65ml milk

5g salt

25g butter, room temp and cubed.

Method

1. Put the dry ingredients with torn up sponge into the mixer. Add half the milk. Mix for 2 minutes on Speed 1 until mixed.

2. Add more milk slowly and continue to mix on Speed 2.

3. Once bowl is dry from milk (dough is formed), add salt. Mix for 2 minutes at Speed 2. 

4. Once incorporated, bowl is clean. Turn up to Speed 4 and mix for 8-10 mins. Check dough is elastic when finger poked through windowpane leaves ragged edges. (She encourages putting the bowl before mixing in the fridge to keep it cold!)

5. Add butter several cubes at a time at low speed and mix at Speed 2 briefly each time until butter is mixed in, around 2 mins total. When adding butter, the dough may break up again so use spatula to incorporate and scrape.

6. Once all mixed in, turn up speed for 5-8 mins until finger poked into windowpane leaves smooth edges. Dough is smooth and shiny, elastic and should not be sticky.

7. Form a ball. Dough should not be more than 26-27 degrees C otherwise the bread is coarse if exceeds 28 deg C. Cover and sprinkle the surface of the dough with water. Proof for 30 - 45 mins. When done, insert finger into the dough and the hole may spring back a bit shouldn't totally close up. If it doesn't spring back at all, it's over-proofed!

8. Beat down the air bubbles and cut 8 portions of 65g each (or depending on filling). Form balls. If dough becomes too taut to roll out with rolling pin, rest under damp tea towel for 15 to 20 mins to relax before continuing to shape dough for filling. 

9. Watch the rest of the video if using sausage otherwise use own filling. Dough should be really elastic and easy to seal seams.

10. After shaping bread, cover and allow to ferment for approx 1 hr.

11. Egg wash just a thin layer and sprinkle with sesame seeds if using and then bake at bottom rack at 180 deg C for 15 - 18 mins.

Recipe feedback

- It works! Quite happy that I've never gotten such 'Asian-like' bread before - soft and what anpan should taste like. The dough was elastic and a dream to work with when it came to crimping. 

- I followed my instincts rather than following the timings for mixing given in the recipe because she used a different beater to KA. I based my intuition based on feel and look developed from experience.

- I've also learnt the magic ratio of filling to dough: about 1: 1 is ideal.

Chocolate castella cake

Since this post that compares the different type of castella cakes, I have tried the standard recipe here. It came out mostly successful but the bottom was gummy. Y suggested that it was because my oil hadn't been heated up high enough, and I think it was because I didn't follow the steps correctly. 

I was making halfway when the electricity went out and so stalled after the flour had been beaten into the yolk. Luckily no ill effect.

That was a recipe for 7 eggs in a 8" square pan. I looked around and most other recipes were either 5 or 6 eggs in the same size and shape pan. I decided to adapt 3 recipes for this attempt, mostly based on how spongey the final product looked in the video. The methods were mostly the same except one added the egg yolks before milk, another added the milk before the yolks, and a third didn't even have any yolks. The baking temps and timings were mostly consistent at 150 deg C but I thought I'd increase by another 2 minutes given my experience with uncooked bottom the last time.

Sources: Laura's Kitchen, Apron, and Table Diary. This recipe largely follows the ingredients from Apron but the methods from Laura's Kitchen and Table Diary.

Ingredients (20cm or 8 inch square tin)

6 eggs, separated

70ml oil

28g cocoa powder

60g cake flour

90ml fresh milk, fridge cold

½ tsp vanilla

¼ tsp salt

75g sugar

splash of lemon juice

Method

1. Separate the eggs when cold. If possible, put the egg whites back into the fridge to chill.

2. Prepare the tin by lining outside with aluminium foil and the inside with parchment.

3. Bring the oil up to between 70 to 80 deg C. I found that heating it for about 1 minute on high already brought it up to 100 deg C (!) so heat on low fire for approx a minute and check with a thermometer. Don't guess cos you won't guess correctly!

4. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, and salt into the oil. Mix well with a spatula.

5. Add half of the cold mix and mix, follow by the other half. Ensure no lumps remain. The mixture may be claggy at this point, that's normal.

6. Add one egg yolk at a time and combine well. At the end of the all the yolks, the mixture should be silky smooth. Set aside.

7. At speed 2, beat the egg whites with lemon juice until foamy. Add the sugar in 3 batches and turn up to speed 4. Once all the sugar has been added, increase the speed to between 6 to 8. Just before it reaches soft peaks stage, turn down to speed and beat for 1 minute to remove the big air bubbles.

8. Add ⅓ of the meringue into the chocolate batter. You can be rather rough and not worry about the air as  the point at this stage is to lighten the chocolate batter and to mix it well. 

9. Add the next ⅓ of the meringue and use either a whisk or spatula to fold well, taking slightly more care not to knock out all the air.

10. Pour the batter back into the remaining ⅓ of meringue and this time, slowly but carefully fold until no more white streaks remain.

11. Pour into the prepared tin. Drop the tin onto the countertop from about 5 cm heigh to knock out the air bubbles.

12. Place the tin into a larger tin, and pour hot water into the larger tin. (I didn't bother with this step because I had put the larger tin and room temp water in the tin to pre-heat in the oven, and sat a rack on the larger tin. So when the oven was sufficiently hot, I put the smaller tin on top of the rack of the larger tin) Ensure that your foil is above the water line so that no water goes into the cake tin.

13. Bake at 150 deg C for 62 minutes. Remove from oven and de-pan. Remove the parchment. Allow to cool down before carving.

Recipe feedback: 

- I could do with another say 10g of sugar as it wasn't as sweet as I'd like, but this is a Korean recipe and maybe they're less into sweet stuff? Who knows. I chose this recipe because it had the lower amount of sugar compared to the rest so I should have expected this. But I can live without the additional sugar.

- The recipe is perfect! The additional 2 minutes just EXACTLY dried out the cake without making it dry.

Taiwanese style Pandan Castella

Recipe from Emojoie (watch the video). Comes with a very good video! (See my Taiwanese and Japanese comparison list of recipes)

Ingredients (for 20cm or 8 inch square pan)

115g cake flour

115g butter or oil

115g milk

7 eggs, separated

1 tsp vanilla extract

115g sugar

½ tsp pandan essence

Whipping cream (optional)

Method

1. Separate the eggs. Bring everything to room temperature. Prepare the tin by lining the outside with foil (as it will go into a water bath) and inside with parchment. Ensure that the height of the inside parchment is 9cm tall.

2. In a saucepan, gently melt the butter and milk. Bring up to 50 deg C.

3. Pour the mixture into the sifted cake flour. Beat with whisk while still warm.

4. Add the egg yolks one at a time and beat. 

5. Add the vanilla and mix in.

6. Beat the meringue with all the sugar. Towards the end, turn the speed down low so that the bubbles are smaller. Beat until soft peak.

7. Pour the yolk mixture into the meringue. Use a whisk to gently fold in as you rotate the bowl. Finish off using a spatula to fold in to ensure no more white streaks remain. This also bursts the big bubbles.

8. Pour the batter in from a height. Use a spatula to push the batter into the corners and flatten the top. Shake the batter so that the big bubbles burst.

9. Put the cake tin in a bigger baking tin and pour 80 deg C water until about ⅓ up the side of the cake tin.

10. Place in the oven and bake at 150 deg C for 65 to 70 minutes.

11. Remove from the oven and the bath. Remove the paper while it is still hot. The cake will begin to deflate slightly.

12. Can be cut and served while still warm. Serve with whipping cream in between if desired.

Try 1:

Top was perfect! Spongy and light. Smooth surface with no cracks. But inside was uncooked. I did 65 minutes and used the Breville oven. I may need the full 70 minutes.

- Sugar level was ok. However, really very eggy tasting despite the ½ tsp pandan essence.

- Only difference from Breville Japanese souffle cheesecake is that I had to wrap the bottom of this pan with foil because it had a removable base. However, with both, I used cold water which I pre-heated with the oven. I put a grill on the outer pan and kept the water level below the grill. Maybe if I wrap the pan, I do have to use 80 deg C water as the recipe suggested.

- Perhaps too my method was off. 1) I didn't heat oil and milk until 50 deg C, only 40 deg C. 2) I beat the yolks then added the melted butter and milk (instead of other way round), and (3) beat the flour in (instead of pouring the yolk mixture into the flour and folding). 

- I followed the recipe of pouring the yolk mixture into the meringue and folded in, although I used (4) a spatula rather than whisk initially. Maybe all together I was too heavy handed. Next time I should follow the regular method I use for cheesecake where meringue is mixed in 3 batches.

- According to Y, temp of milk and oil are not high enough, causing the oil to separate from the mixture. Makes sense!

Taiwanese Castella and Japanese Kasutera comparison recipes

I've learnt that there are two main styles of Castella, the original or Japanese Kastera カステラ, and the colonised adaptation which is Taiwanese Castella. Both are unique in their own way. Japanese Kasutera usually uses honey as the main flavour. The focus is on the moistness yet bounce achieved from bread flour through the use of an insulated or wooden container. It needs to rest overnight wrapped in plastic. Taiwanese Castella uses cake flour and focuses on bouncy sponginess. It is like making a chiffon and baked in a water bath. There is also a Korean version but it's mostly based off the Japanese version, so I'm going to ignore that. Tips and uniqueness of each recipe highlighted:

Japanese kastutera

1. Bake for Happy Kids (In her other recipes, she references recipes from Roti and Rice and Just One Cookbook)

- Loaf tin (20 by 10 cm); Lining tin with aluminium foil and parchment

- 3 eggs, separated

- Cook milk, oil, and honey before adding yolk and flour.

- Sugar at the bottom as optional

- All her attempts (adding extra yolk, omit oil, etc)

2. Just One Cookbook

- Possibly one of the original recipes

- 2 loaf tins (22 by 11cm), lined with parchment

- 6 eggs

- Beat eggs until ribbon stage and add flour

- Focuses on correct beating of eggs and variation of baking time to prevent cracks and sinking

3. Cooking with Dog

- Square tin (19 by 19cm). Very hard core, baked in a square cardboard box lined with alum foil and parchment, then sprinkle bottom with sugar

- 6 eggs

- Beat eggs and sugar in water bath until ribbon stage

4. Roti and Rice

- Loaf tin (19*9cm), lined with al foil and parchment

- 2 eggs, separated. Beat whites until meringue then add yolks and flour.

5. Not quite Nigella

- Loaf tin (26.5*7.5 cm), lined with parchment

- 3 eggs

- Whisk eggs and caster sugar on water bath

- Mixing meringue and flour layers well and quickly

- Most wrinkly looking cake

6. Taste Asian

- details differences between Taiwanese and Japanese version

- Lists common mistakes (use slow mixer speed for meringue, sifted flour for smooth batter, collapsed cake)

- Square (20 by 20 cm) tin, lined with corrugated cardboard with al foil or square tin with old newspapers.

- 7 eggs, separated

- Compares cakes that separate vs beat eggs together. Meringue method has finer texture and smoother.

- After separating eggs, beat whites on low speed on bain marie at 40 deg C until meringue forms. Add egg yolks manually, followed by honey and bread flour, and lastly, milk.

Taiwanese castella

Using butter

1. Emojoie Cuisine - Attempted here.

- Square tin (various sizes listed including 20cm), lined with non-stick parchment. Sounds super bouncy and moist

- 7 eggs separated for 20cm square tin 

- Melt butter and milk to 50 deg C, add flour and yolks

- Very detailed recipe: beat the meringe at the end with hand whisk to stabilise meringue. Use hand whisk to incorporate first followed by spatula for final blending

2. Princess Bamboo

- 6" tin

- Uses flour and corn starch

- Uses butter but doesn't state the temperature to heat to

3. Gracious Treatz (very similar to Emojoie)

- 7" square tin, lined with parchment

- 6 eggs, separated

- Melt butter and milk to add to dough and yolks

- Re-usable non-stick parchment means no wrinkles

Using oil

4. Laura Kitchen

- 8" square tin, lined with parchment

- 5 eggs, separated

- Warm oil to between 70 to 85 deg C. Add flour, milk, eggs.

- Looks like very soft sponge that leaves fingerprints.

5. Mrs P's Kitchen

- 8" square tin, lined with parchment

- 6 eggs, separated

- Warm oil to 65 deg C. Add flour, egg yolks, and milk.

- Looks like a standard sponge and not super fluffy or bouncy

6. Kat Kwa

- 8" square tin

- 7 eggs separated

- Warm oil for 1 minute to 60 deg C.  Add flour and cornstarch followed by milk.

- Looks like standard sponge and not super fluffy or bouncy

Korean chocolate castella

1. Apron Chocolate castella Attempted here.

- Loaf tin 29x7x10cm

- 6 eggs, separated

- Warm oil to between 60 to 70 deg C. Add flour, yolks, followed by milk. 

- Looks like standard sponge and not super fluffy or bouncy

2. Korean Table Diary choc castella

- 16.5x16.5cm square tin

- 5 eggs, separated

- Heat oil for 1 minute on low (no temp given). Add flour, milk, yolks.

- Looks like a very bouncy soft sponge.