November Cooking Class 十一月烹飪班

Hainan Chicken with Rice 海南雞飯

Hainan chicken is my family's favorite dish. To make this chicken, I have tried using the soaking method, in which the chicken is dipped in a hot, herb-infused brine to cook, and this steaming recipe. Both methods give me a moist chicken but I found steaming is easier to do and less wasteful, as the brine in the soaking method is merely disposed of after cooking the chicken.

Do you like the chicken more than the rice? Or the ginger and scallion infused oil? I think they are like legs of a table. Each one is indispensable from the other, and essential to the dish as a whole.

October Cooking Class 十月份烹飪班

2018 Mooncake Classes 月餅班

How to Make Salted Egg (Yolk Only) 淨咸蛋黃做法

Beginning this project, I was doubtful if it would work the way I saw in the pictures, if the salted egg yolks would turn out to be round, solid, yet slightly oozy. But after doing it myself, I am convinced. It is indeed an ingenious way to make salted egg yolks, without the egg whites or using the whole egg method. I have been making my own salty egg for a long time since the import is prohibited by the FDA (only cooked salty eggs can be imported to the US). But most of the time, only the egg yolks are used, like in mooncakes or other bakery products.

There is not really a recipe for it, meaning the quantity of the ingredients is arbitrary, not like in baking. It is the "how" which matters. The salt can be reused.

Black Forest Tart (No Bake) 黑森林撻 (免焗)

This is a nice summer-friendly, no-bake variation of the traditional black forest cake. I used dark chocolate mousse as the filling and dark sweet cherries. Use the finest chocolate for best flavor. Both homemade or store bought tart crusts do not require baking, so it is a superb dessert for hot summer days. If you keep the tart in the freezer and eat it frozen, the texture of the chocolate mousse becomes almost like ice cream.

Special note about silky and smooth chocolate mousse: the temperatures of the three different mixtures--egg, melted chocolate and whipped cream--have to be very close, if not the same. If the chocolate or egg mixture is too warm, the whipped cream will deflate, resulting with a dense mousse. If the cream is too cold, the chocolate will seize into flecks, making the mousse grainy.

Sprouted Wheat Pancake 發芽麵粉班戟

What is sprouted flour?
Sprouted flour is milled using sprouted wheat. By soaking wheat kernels in water, it will germinate and sprout because it is the seed of the wheat plant. Under the right conditions, the wheat kernels will grow into a wheat plant, but this process is stopped in order for us to have sprouted flour. The sprouted wheat is dried, then ground into flour.

What is the difference between using sprouted flour vs non-sprouted flour (regular wheat flour)?
Sprouted flour is tastier, more nutritious, and easier to digest. When a seed germinates, the enzymes start turning it into a growing organism. Hence the nutritional value increases.

It makes this pancake more nutty, tender with melt-in-your-mouth feel. Other than using it to make pancake, it can substitute with other whole wheat flour recipe.

Give it a try and you'll love it!

Sourdough Rye Bread 裸麥包

It is amazing how four simple ingredients--flour, water, yeast and salt (plus time and patience)--can produce such a nutritious and flavorful food that human beings have consumed since thousands of years ago.

This is my first time using rye to make bread. Rye is very different from wheat. Although rye flour has similar gluten producing proteins, there is virtually no gluten formation. It has more bran, mineral, fiber, soluble sugars, pentosans, and amylase enzymes than wheat flour. All these differences make baking with rye a bit challenging. In particular, amylase will cause the bread crumb to have more of a gummy texture in a process called "starch attack" (I am not going to go into details here. For more information, read Hamelman's book, Bread, p40-42)

Oatmeal Bread (No Knead Method) 燕麥麵包(免揉)

"Most bread produced in factory bakeries in the industrialized world is made without the critical step of fermentation.....Dough conditioners, flavorings, processing aids, gums, fats and additives are used in an attempt to save one precious thing, TIME....They mix, shape, and bake a loaf in less than an hour. A baker using traditional methods and actual fermentation may take up to 72 hours."  by Martin Philip, head baker of King Arthur Flour, "Breaking Bread" (emphasis added).

Crispy Fish Skin with Salted Egg Yolk 香脆金沙魚皮

If you follow my blog, you would notice that I like snacks, appetizers or small bites food a lot. This is another good one that is very popular in Asia. It is not difficult nor complicated to make if you could get fried fish skin from local restaurant or store.