Starch

Got this from Sunday's Taste section today. Something I've been wondering for a long time and presto, here's the answer!

Q: I find that when you use corn flour to thicken a dish it becomes watery after a while. Some suggest the use of sweet potato flour, especially if you need to thicken lor mee. May I know what type of flour I shoudl use as a common thickener?

A (Chris Tan): The pure starches commonly used for thickening in Asia have different properties, and each does different things well.

Corn starch is popular as it thickens quickly and efficiently. However, corn starch-thickened sauces are cloudy and, if over-stirred or over-cooked, become watery, as you've noticed. Hence, corn starch is most ideal for dishes that are quickly cooked and promptly served.

Flavour-wise, it's also the most compatible thickener for dairy-based sauces and soupls.

Potato starch and sweet potato starch make clear, beautifully glossy sauces that start out very thick, but thin out as simmering continues. They are good for lor mee, mee rebus and other gravies that need to be creamy-smooth but are not boiled at length.

Arrowroot starch is similar to corn starch, but is less cloudy and more stable. It's also less concentrated, so you need slightly more of it. Arrowroot-thickened sauces do not become gluey or jelly-like as they cook. Unlike other starches, arrowroot isn't affected by acidic ingredients, so it's great for dishes like hot and sour soup, or fruit pie fillingss. It doesn't mix well with diary products though.

Tapioca (cassava) starch has the most neutral flavour of all, suitable for both sweet and savoury dishes. It's wonderful for fruit pie fillings or bright, shiny fruit tart glazes. Cold soups and sauces are a no-no though, as tapioca yeilds stringy, gel-like consistencies when cool.

Water chestnut starch is expensive and has a slight but distinctive flavour. however, it gives sauces a lovely shine and less heavy texture than corn strach. It's often gritty so pulse it in a food processor to break it up. You have to stir it energetically to dissolve it in water.

Cornflake and coconut biscuits

Thanks to Mag's recipe for Anzac biscuits, I'd thought I'd modify it a bit considering I don't really like oats and don't want to have a big bag of it hanging around after I've done baking! I leant the hard way about parchment paper - you still have to oil it otherwise it will still get stuck to the biscuits! To be extra kiasu, I recommend dusting on some flour on top as well.

Ingredients

3 cups cornflakes, crushed (put it into a ziploc and use a rolling pin to bash it up...great for working out frustration!)

1 cup plain flour (150g)

1 cup packed brown sugar (200g)

1/2 cup dessicated coconut (45g)

125g butter

2 tbsp honey

1 tbsp water

1/2 tsp bicarb of soda

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1) Combine the dry ingredients (cornflakes, sugar, flour and coconut) well in a big mixing bowl.

2) Combine the wet ingredients by melting the butter in a microwave bowl with sugar, water, and vanilla. Once the butter has melted, stir in the bicarb.

3) Pour the wet ingredients into the mixing bowl and mix well.

4) Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Oil/butter the parchment paper well and dust on a thin layer of flour. Shake off excess.

5) Use a spoon to form rounded tsp of the mixture, and put them approx 5 cm apart. I used my hands to really crush and pack the mixture together into a tight ball, patting it down only slightly to get the flat biscuit shape. If it's too dry, add a bit more water or use milk.

6) Bake in a 160 degree oven for approx 15 to 20 mins until firm to the touch.

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

Nigella's Triple Chocolate Brownies

I've always been looking around for the right brownie recipe - my brownies are nice right after baking but tend to get hard as the days go by, as hard as biscuits! I had this prefect recipe off the Hershey cocoa tin years ago but haven't been able to find it since. I'm told the secret to the gooey-ness really lies in sour cream.

Anyhow this look like another good recipe to try. Thought I'd copy and paste it here before it disappears from cyberspace forever.

Recipe courtesy Nigella Lawson
Show:
Nigella Feasts
Episode:
Chocolate Heaven

Ingredients
3 sticks plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
12 ounces best-quality bittersweet chocolate
6 eggs 1 3/4 cups superfine sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup white chocolate buttons, chips, or morsels
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate buttons, chips or morsels
Approximately 2 teaspoons confectioners' sugar, for garnish
Special equipment: Baking tin (approximately 11 1/4 inches by 9 inches by 2 inches), sides and base lined with baking parchment.

Method
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
1) Melt the butter and dark chocolate together in a large heavy based pan over a low heat.
2) In a bowl or large measuring jug, beat the eggs together with the superfine sugar and vanilla extract.
3) Allow the chocolate mixture to cool a little, then add the egg and sugar mixture and beat well. 4) Fold in the flour and salt. Then stir in the white chocolate buttons or chips, and the semisweet chocolate buttons or chips.
5) Beat to combine then scrape and pour the brownie mixture into the prepared tin.
6) Bake for about 25 minutes. You can see when the brownies are ready because the top dries to a slightly paler brown speckle, while the middle remains dark, dense and gooey. Even with such a big batch you do need to keep checking on it: the difference between gooey brownies and dry ones is only a few minutes. Remember, too, that they will continue to cook as they cool.
7) To serve, cut into squares while still warm and pile up on a large plate, sprinkling with confectioners' sugar pushed with a teaspoon through a small sieve.

Nigella's Quadraple Chocolate Loaf Cake

Saw this super duper easy and yet superbly sinful choco cake recipe recently. Done just the way I like it - using a food processor! More of Nigella's chocolate recipes can be found in her episode "Chocolate Heaven".
Cake:
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 1/2 sticks soft unsalted butter
2 eggs
1 tablespoon good-quality vanilla extract
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup boiling water
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or morsels

Syrup:
1 teaspoon cocoa
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar

1-ounce dark chocolate (from a thick bar if possible), cut into splinters of varying thickness, for garnish

Special equipment: 2-pound loaf tin (approximately 9 1/2 by 4 1/2 by 3 inches deep), lined with greased foil, pressed into the corners and with some overhang at the top. Alternatively, substitute a silicon loaf tin, no foil lining necessary.

Method

1) Take whatever you need out of the refrigerator so that all ingredients can come room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F, putting in a baking sheet as you do so.

2) Put the flour, baking soda, cocoa, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, and sour cream into the processor and blitz until a smooth, satiny brown batter. Scrape down with a rubber spatula and process again while pouring the boiling water down the funnel. Switch it off, then remove the lid and the well-scraped double-bladed knife and, still using your rubber spatula, stir in the chocolate chips or morsels.

3) Scrape and pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and put into the oven, cooking for about 1 hour. When ready, the loaf will be risen and split down the middle and a cake-tester will pretty well come out clean.

4) Not long before the cake is due out of the oven (when it has had about 45 to 50 minutes), put the syrup ingredients of cocoa, water and sugar into a small saucepan and boil for about 5 minutes, to give a thick syrup.

5) Take the cake out of the oven and sit it on a cooling rack, still in the tin, and pierce here and there with a cake tester. Pour the syrup over the cake.

6) Let the cake become completely cold and then slip out of its tin, removing the foil as you do so. Sit on an oblong or other plate. Sprinkle the chocolate splinters over the top of the sticky surface of the cake

Steamed ginger minced pork 'biscuit'

Inspired by the cantonese favourite, 'ham yu jing (or jian depending on fried or steamed) yok bang', I was merrily preparing this dish when I realised, alamak, no more of the key ingredient, salted fish! :O And then I suddenly remembered my frozen ginger sitting in my freezer. I absolutely adore ginger so what the heck... To make it softer (more like chawamushi, you can add more water)
Ingredients (makes 2 servings)
150g pork mince
1 thumb sized ginger, skin removed and sliced into thin slivers
1 tbls light soya sauce
1 tbls chinese rice wine
2 dashes sesame seed oil
2 eggs
2 tbls water

Method
1) Add every thing together (except the egg and water) and mix well.
2) Beat in the egg.
3) Add in the water.
4) Transfer into 2 bowls suitable for steaming.
5) Steam until it sets (about 10 to 15 mins). I used a microwave by putting both bowls on top of a microwave steaming tray.
6) (optional) Garnish with spring onions.

Seafood Mui Fan

I remember when I was young, we would go to this food court type restaurant in the basement of the old Orchard Point on Sundays. Now it's gone, after the reno. The food wasn't great, but it was tasty, and served old favourites like hor fun, mui fan, etc.

Mui fan is one of my favourite childhood dishes. It's actually v easy to make, once you got the sauce down pat. And from there, it's easy to move on to hor fun (altho frying the kway teow in dark sauce is a pain) and even crispy noodles. People always told me it would be easy but I still don;'t reckon so, but this is a pretty decent attempt.

Ingredients (serves 4)
150g squid, cleaned and sliced into rings
150g shelled and deveined prawns
1 pkt fishballs
half a can of canned baby corn, drained and sliced
1 baby chinese lettuce (or chinese cabbage can also be used), sliced
1 tomato, diced
2 eggs, beaten
1 tbl oyster sauce
1 tbl Maggi concentrated chicken stock
1 tbl chinese rice wine
2 cups water
2 tbl cornstarch, as thickener

Method
1) In a pot, pour in the water, fishballs, and vegetables. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 5 to 10 minutes.
2) Add the seasoning. Add the seafood and cook for no more than 30 seconds.
3) Bring to a boil. Drizzle in the beaten egg to achieve the 'egg drop' effect.
4) Add the cornstarch to a bit of water, and when the soup is boiling, pour into the pot and stir.
5) Serve immediately on top of steamed rice. You can also serve on top of noodles.

Ikea meatballs

Especially for Mags, who is a Ikea Swedish meatball lover! She's not alone tho' - Singaporeans really love their food. With a new Tampines Ikea branch, they will probably catapult Singapore into the top 5 Ikea cafes in the world in terms of sales! The cafe sales at the current Alexandra outlet already rates it top 20 in the world.

This recipe is reproduced from today's Sunday Times, which they took from the Ikea Real Swedish Food Book, available from the Ikea Food Market.

Ingredients
250g minced beef
250g minced pork
1 egg
2-3 deci-litre cream and water (or use milk and water)
2 1/2 onions, finely chopped
1/2 deci-litre unsweetened rusk flour
2 cold boiled potatoes (about 60g each)
4-5 tbs butter, margarine or oil
salt and pepper to taste

Method
1) Mash potatoes and moisten rusk flour in separate containers.
2) Heat the onions till golden with a few tbs of lightly browned butter
3) Mix and knead all the ingredients into a smooth paste.
4) Shape and form into balls, roughly about the size of 50 cent coins.
5) Pan fry in butter slowly, until golden brown.
6) Serve with Ikea's meatball cream sauce and lingonberry jam.

Casserole Chicken

I have been trying to re-create the tastes of my childhood - simple recipes yet it's the taste of home and family. The simpliest of them all - good old chicken soup, isn't really so simple after all! I just can't get the depth and richness of the tastes.

I have just found the trick to another familar favourite - casserole chicken. I had to wreck my brains and try to remember, and then I remembered cruching down on something deeply unpleasant when I was young, now I've identified it as star anise, a spice I've recently discovered a liking for! It gives this nice 'baked' taste to the soup, something I could never recreate until now. The carrot and potatoes are also essential to the flavour of the soup. ( I know because I used sugar peas instead..blech!)

So here it is, my mom's casserole chicken with that 'baked' flavour. The taste difference between normal 'steamed' or 'boiled' chicken soup and 'baked' chicken soup is quite different, give it a try and u'll know what I mean!

Ingredients (Serves 2, as always)
2 chicken thighs and 2 drumsticks
4 tbsp of chinese cooking wine (1 tbsp per per piece of chicken)
2 star anise
sprinkling of 5 spice powder
sprinkling of sugar
whole black peppercorns
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 potato, cubed
1 carrot, cubed
5 cups water
salt to taste

Method
1) Put all the ingredients into a casserole pot, chuck everything in. If you like, you can also marinate the chicken in the wine for about 15 minutes.
2) Cover. Bake in the oven at 200 deg C for 25 to 30 mins until cooked.
3) Served with steamed rice.

Rosemary and Garlic Pork Chops

I've always shied away from buying an extra bottle of this or that if it will clog up my already postage stamp-sized kitchen. In Cold Storage recently, I caved and got myself one of the 4 'kings' of British cooking - worcheshire sauce. Every cuisine has what I term their '4 great kings' and worcheshire sauce is to British cooking what oyster sauce is to Chinese cooking.

I didn't even know that there were different varieties of worcheshire sauce. The only usage I know for it is on top of grilled cheese. I know it goes well with roast beef or steak and also in stews. But beyond this, I was pretty unawares. But there was a 'marinade' version which I used. In terms of taste, it's a lot sharper and more sour than the non-marinade aka table use version.

Having to put my newly acquired bottle of sauce to good use, I figured since it works so well with beef, it'll probably work well with pork too. And I was right! Vegetarians read no further! This is where only true meat lovers dare to venture!

Ingredients
4 juicy slabs of pork chop, with bone intact. (Nothing retains the flavour like cooking on the bone!
1 tbl soya sauce)
1 tsp English mustard
Chopped or dried rosemary (I also added other herbs like sage, thyme and parsley)
2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1 tbl worcheshire sauce
1 tbl honey (to offset the sharpness of the sauce)


Method
1) Combine all the ingredients and massage into the pork chops. Leave to marinade, overnight is best.
2) In a baking tin, pour some oil to prevent sticking to the bottom of the plan. Lay on the pork chops. Drizzle with more olive oil for extra flavour. No time for diets here!
3) Bake at 200 degrees C for 25 min or until cooked. You can tell quite easily because the bone is in, so you can quite easily see whether the bone is still red and whether any blood is oozing out.