Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Pork Floss Bun



中種面團 Starter Dough

IngredientsAmounts
Bread flour167g
Water100g
Instant yeast1 1/2 tsp

主面團 Basic Dough

IngredientsAmounts
Bread flour167g
Water67g
Butter40g
Sugar40g
Skimmed milk powder15g
Egg20g
Salt 5g

Fillings: Pork Floss



  1. With the help of a Breadmachine/Mixer, mixed the ingredients for Starter into a dough.
    The dough may be slightly dry and sticky but that is okay. Allow the dough to proof for 90 mins.

  2. Combine ingredients for Basic dough (except butter) and knead into a dough. Tear the proofed Starter dough into small pieces and add into the above. When the doughs gets mixed thoroughly together, mix in the butter. Allow kneading till dough is smooth and elastic (Try stretching the dough to determine)

  3. Cut the ready dough into 60g each and roll them into a ball-liked shape. Allow the dough to relax for 10 mins. When done, roll each individual dough into an oval shape and allow another proofing of 45 mins. (You may proof the doughs in the oven with 38 degree celsius set plus a bowl of warm water)

  4. Bake the dough at 190 degree Celsius for 12~15 mins. Allow the buns to cool.

  5. Spread Transparent mayonnaise onto the bun and topped it over with Pork Floss.






I finally took out some time for baking! I cannot imagine that I have not been baking for, I supposed at least 2 weeks :( I just hate it when work's piling so much that I do not have my own time to do things that I really like.

Though I was home rather late (OT-ing as usual), I decided to bake some bread for breakfast! I felt kind of guilty since I haven't been baking any snacks/breakfasts for my Prince Charming lately. I still have 1 and 3/4 packets of Pork floss to go, complimentary from my Mil cause she knows I love pork floss. I decided to make my own Pork Floss buns!

The Transparent Mayonnaise that I made the very last time were chilled in the fridge, so I heated a portion of them up and they were back to the sticky texture again. Prince Charming just love these mayonnaise so much that I applied a super thick layer for his buns. LOL.

I love how soft the buns were, even though left overnight, very fluffy too. I baked a total of 9 buns and only used 3 for Pork floss. Guess I'll be using the rest for other flavours, perhaps Tuna?

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Up up into the sky - Singapore Flyer

Prince Charming's company organised a "Singapore Flyer Experience" trip on Saturday. The expected time to "fly" was about 6.30pm in the evening and guessed what? The weather starts to get gloomy at around 4.30pm and later on, I saw big splashes of water droplets from the sky.

I started to worry since the priority aim of my trip down to Singapore Flyer was to capture the beautiful city view! The rain might just blur out the visions :( Phew~ luckily the rain stopped just in time when we reaced our destination :D

I saw Popeyes! I always thought that they only has one outlet at the Airport, so I was quite happy that I can just pop by Singapore flyer if I have the crave for their so tasty mashed potatoes. There was this "Yakult Rainforest" in the center of the building, but well the floorings were wet so I did not get to enter the "forest". Within no time, we had to ride onto our Cabin into the sky! Excited!

The view was indeed gorgeous! The beautiful night view of Singapore = Superb!
Now, let the pictures do the talking ;P


World Biggest Ferris Wheel (At the moment)


Inside the Cabin


I love this expressway view, and look over at the future developments!


Night view of Beautiful Singapore


Night view of Beautiful Singapore

Friday, July 18, 2008

Itadakimasu!



Serves 1

IngredientsAmounts
Raw salmon3 small steaks
Salt1 tsp
Pepper1 tsp
Egg1
Salta pinch
Mirin2 tbsp
Cooked sushi rice1 bowl

Teriyaki sauce

IngredientsAmounts
Soy sauce1/4 cup
Mirin1/4 cup
Corn starch + Water2 tsp + 3 tsp

  1. Marinate the salmon steaks with salt and pepper. Set aside.

  2. In a bowl, beat up egg, salt and mirin. Heat up a pan over low heat, pour the egg mixture over and stir vigorously. You should get small crumbles of cooked egg.

  3. In a saucepan, pour mirin, corn starch and soy sauce and bring to boil over low heat. When the mixture starts boiling, arrange the marinated salmon steaks into it and allow simmering. The salmon should get cooked within few mins. Allow the salmon to continuing cooking in the sauce to enhance a better taste.

  4. Scoop the sushi rice into a bowl, top with "crumbled" eggs and top it further with Teriyaki Salmon steaks. Pour some remaining sauce over and ready for serving.


This was the dinner for my Prince Charming. The intention was to make some salmon sushi but, i think that would be more work for me, so I decided to change it to doing a Teriyaki Salmon Don.

Prince Charming always like food that comes with a little sweet taste so I think that's the main reason he always love Teriyaki!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Pancakes, ice cream and sandwiches

I haven't been posting recently due to the holy-mama heavy workload that is piling and piling each day. *sigh* I miss baking+cooking :(

Anyway, here's what I managed to come up with recently.

Sunday - 13th July 2008



There was a Japanese food fair going on in Plaza Singapura and I happened to get this little bottle of Maple syrup. It looks kind of watery compared to the normal ones we see in NTUC or Cold storage, so I was kind of worried that it might not be as good.

Well, it was more of like an impulse purchase and I really do not want to leave it intact in my cabinet so, I made some pancakes in order to use it. ( I normally utilise my "stocks" when they are open, else they will just end up in my cabinet untouched!) I was wrong! The syrup taste really good! We finished up our pancakes in no time :D

I made some Cookies 'n' Cream ice-cream as well since there was some left-over heavy and whipping cream in my fridge.


This ice-cream turns out real good! I got the recipe from <冷凍甜品>.


Tuesday - 15th July 2008

Since I was really tired due to my over-whelming workload, I did not managed to baked any breakfast recently. Most of the time, I will get a packet of Gardenia Low fat Loaf from the supermarket and transform them into sandwiches.

My Mil gave me 2 big packets of Pork floss, so I make use of the flosses to create a Floss and Egg Sandwich. I stirred up some 透明美乃滋 (Transparent Mayonnaise) with the recipe from <爆紅人氣三明治> for the spread on the sandwich. The mayonnaise was really good, taste exactly like the one from Bread Talk!






*Updates*
. . . . . . . . . . . . .


Recipes for Transparent Mayonnaise (透明美乃滋)

Ingredient A
  • 100g, Fine sugar
  • 5g, Salt
  • 50g, Butter
  • 450g, Water

Ingredient B

  • 200g, Fine Sugar
  • 50g, Corn Starch
  • 200cc, Water
  1. Combine Ingredient A into a big bowl and bring to cook over low heat. Make sure that stiring is done and that sugar and butter gets completely melted.

  2. When mixture A starts to boil, combine Ingredient B into mixture A and continue to cook over low heat. The mixture will starts to thicken and get transparent in color. Allow cooling before using the mayonnaise.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Sigh

I'm still slogging my head off in the office!

Sunday, July 06, 2008

A very LONG post

The first two days of my Taipei trip were spent at home, mainly to spent more time with my Mil. On the 3rd day, Prince Charming and I left Taipei for the Northern part of Taiwan, Hualien (花蓮).

We took 自強號 from Taipei Train Station (台北火車站) and alighted at the Hualien Train Station (花蓮火車站). The journey took a wholesome of 3.5 hours, so majority of the time passengers are sleeping inside the cabin. It is always recommended that you bring/buy bentos in case you feel hungry in the midst of the journey, as the train does not cater any selling of bentos but biscuits instead.

We did not sleep much on the train so we managed to capture some of the nice sceneries. The below picture shows a large scale of Padi fields. There were some Corns at the side but we did not get to take them down in time. The sky was so amazingly blue!



When we reached Hualien, we were escorted to our 民宿 by the host 阿呈. As we were a little earlier than the expected time, the room was not ready yet, so 阿呈 suggested that we could take a tour around the area by riding on the bicycles provided. Prince Charming and I thus, cycled out from the 民宿 and toured around the place. The sun was soaring so fiercely up in the sky and I was feeling almost dehydrated.

We stopped at one of the eatery and had our lunch over there. We decided to go for 扁食 at <花蓮香扁食>. We ordered the below:


滷肉飯 Rice with Braised minced pork


紅油抄手 Wanton in chili oil


乾麵 Dry noodle

Besides the usual main dishes, you may also add in little appetizers.
We had the below:


涼拌小黃瓜 Preserved cucumbers


滷蛋與昆布 Braised egg with Seaweed

After our hearty meal, we cycled for almost 1 hour before heading back to our 民宿. We were sweaty and hot and I desperately wanted to have my shower right away! The heat was so much higher than Singapore!! 36 degree in Taipei and 37 in Hualien! God sake!

It was such a relief when we reached our 民宿. I like the way how the 民宿 was decorated because everything looks so so so cozy and there were many cute and nice ornaments that the host had. Oh, I forgot to mention that the host had 2 retro vehicles! He drove us back in his Volkswagen Beetle of 40 yrs and nothing was changed. It was a nice experiment really!

So now, the room! We really liked this room SO much! It has a 樓中樓 concept and it's really romantic :)


The romantic Balinese inspired room.
You get to see beautiful butterflies flying outside the room especially in the morning :)


The stairs leads you up the upper level where you can relax and
賞星(adore the stars) at night.


This is what you see right away when you reach the upper level - A swing!
The scenery behind the glass panels were awesome.


When you view through the glass panels, this is what you get to see.
Beautiful flowers and greenery.


The delicious breakfast catered :)


The special wooden Japanese style bath tub. The water are hot spring water, that were piped down to the 民宿, so you don't have to spent a single cent visiting hot spring hotels.


One of the cute ornaments found in the 民宿 - A retro Beetle car


Another ornament - A miniature retro Vespa


The whole image of 迴音谷, very nice and cozy.


This is the Volkswagen T2 I mentioned above. very CUTE! They call it 麵包車.

Basically, the 民宿 is cozy and a nice place for holidays. It's just so relaxing staying in that place! I am certain I would visit this 民宿 again if I'm going Hualien. Probably I'll stay in the other rooms or perhaps I might visit their other branch 迴音海 which is at the coastal area.

Now, Hualien's trip - Hot but beautiful. Hualien is a small city in the northern part of Taiwan and the weather is relatively much higher than those in Taipei. They have many natural creations especially the marbles ( 大理石). We went to the famous 太魯閣 and was amazed by god's creation.


The beautiful lake in 太魯閣. Clear blue water!


The weather was so good, even our shoes love tanning!

Next up, we headed to 七星潭, a coastal area in Hualien. The scenery is so nice and oh my, it's the pacific ocean! I can't believe I'm standing near the Pacific ocean. LOL!


Ain't that beautiful? The skies are indeed very blue.


It's just so nice sitting down, admiring the nice scenery.

After we left 七星潭, it was near to 5pm. We decided to go to 自強夜市 - The famous 夜市 in Hualien! It wasn't very big as we thought, I suppose they only had like not more than 10 stalls. Anyway, we weren't very hungry due to the hot weather, so we decided to try on 2 stalls - 棺材板 and 烤肉


花蓮法市棺材板 - It's basically a special French toast covered with
different kinds of ingredients


There are so many different kinds of 棺材板 to choose from - Savoury to sweet.


The little tins contains the different kinds of ingredients.


Here's the 棺材板 we ordered. We had 蜜汁燻雞 (Honey smoked chicken).
Very yummy! *Drools*

We also had 烤肉串 and 烤雞排 but Prince Charming couldn't wait to eat them up, so he did not take any pictures of them :P

The next day, we checked out from the 民宿 and 阿呈 drove us to the Train station. As we are again earlier than expected timing, he recommended us to one of the restaurant that is within walking distance. The ambience of the restaurant was really nice :)


This is what you see when you look out from the windows.
Beautiful huh?


The layout of the restaurant. The furniture were all antiques!


They also had an outdoor area, nice isn't it?


They plant lotus at the outdoor area.


花生土司 Peanut butter toast


酥炸豆腐 Crispy Beancurd


肉燥麵 Mince pork noodles


甜不辣 Tempura


檸檬愛玉 and 古早奶茶

That marks the end of our Hualien trip and now back to Taipei. My friend, Rachel and her buddy, Ah Zhen came to Taipei too! We met up together and Rachel, being a fan of Jay Chou, we bought the both of them to the restaurant owned by Jay Chou.


That's the signboard - Mr J 義式廚房!


When you entered the restaurant, you will get to see Betty Boop and 方文山!


The restaurant isn't very big but they do have private dinning room.


I love this corner because of the sofa!


Appetizer - Munchies Combo 綜合拼盤


Ah Zhen's order - 義式臘腸焗麵 Baked Penne with Sausages


Rachel's order - 香烤海鮮奶油飯 Baked Seafood rice in Cream sauce


Mrs Kwok's order - 茄汁干貝蝦燉飯 Shrimp and Scallop Risotto


Mr Kwok's order - 明太子奶油麵 Spaghetti Mentaiko

We chose to top up NT $89 for a full course that consists of - Salad, soup, main dishes, desserts and drinks. The total came up to NT $2000. The food were not very fantastic but edible though. Well, it doesn't really matter since it's just an experience. Now I understand why my Mil love the Pasta mania in Singapore - They have BETTER pasta over there.

After the dinner, we took Rachel and Ah Zhen to Miramar 美麗華 where the famous Ferris wheel is.


Beautiful right? It's even nicer during sunset :)

Whooops, its such a LONG post! LOL~
Lastly, Happy 1st Year Wedding Anniversary!