Blueberry Pie @ Hans

I went to Hans with Andy @ Far East Plaza. It was almost dinner time, instead of ordering those usual meal, I had ordered blueberry pie. Hoping that it will gives me an idea of how to bake it in future or even teach me the different ways of baking an apple pie. I believe the way to bake an apple pie and a blueberry pie is similar.

Blueberry Pie	Side View of Blueberry Pie

In fact, I am not sure of the correct naming of this blueberry pie. But it has crumbles on top and decorated with chocolate chips which enhances the taste of the blueberry pie. Yum yum, I love it. Is there any peach pie since apples and blueberry can become a pie. Oh, how about a durian pie too? Lol.

Apple Pie – 1st Try

This is my first time trying baking an Apple Pie. What’s the result? Haha, its an edible yet unpresentable apple pie. I guess is because my pie crust is too thick, both on top and below. In order to make it edible, you know what I did? I flipped the whole apple pie upside down and bake it again, resulting in the upper crust smash into pieces. Omg. Since its my first try, I rather make it edible than presentable.

The second time I gonna make it, I better learn my lesson. Lol. Thinner crust. Oh yah and smaller cubes of apples. My first try was thick slices of apples which I find it alright but my “testers” all recommend me to make it smaller.

I will put my recipe here since I will still follow the measurements given. You can twist a little bit after knowing my problems, like smaller cubes of apples, thick crust ==> either use a bigger pan size or reduce the amount of flour. By the way, the size of my pie pan is 6″, which explains the overloaded crust.

Recipe of Apple Pie

Ingredients: Pastry: 532g plain flour 3/4 teaspoon salt 150g unsalted butter 118g vegetable shortening 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar Filling: 177g sugar 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg powder 2 to 3 teaspoons tapioca flour or cornstarch 1/4 teaspoon salt 3 big apples (sliced) 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 30ml unsalted butter 1 tablespoon sugar Preparations: Combine the flour and salt in a big mixing bowl. Cut the butter into smaller pieces and add it into the mixing bowl gradually. Following, add the vegetable shortening and apple cider vinegar. Keep mixing until the dough gathers into a ball. Divide the dough into half, separate it by putting into different bowl or wrap it separately. Put it into fridge for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven. While the dough is chilling in the fridge, we prepare the filling. Peel and sliced the apples. Add in all the ingredients for the filling into another mixing bowl. After 30 minutes, take out the dough. Spread the pie pan with oil. Spread one portion of the dough into the pie pan, well spread. Add in the ingredients. The other half of the dough, use a roller to make it round and flat first. Cover it above the apple mixtures. Do a nice closing for the apple pie. Bake the pie at 200 degrees for 50 minutes. Observe it while it is baking. Tips: For the filling, make sure the tapioca flour is well mixed, otherwise you will be able to taste “glue” in your apple pie. Finishing: Cut the apple pie into smaller pieces. Scoop one slice out and served.

When baking the apple pie, there are alot of small details to take note of. Continue reading my blog for my successful apple pie. =)

Loh Mai Kai (Chicken in Glutinous Rice)

Cooked Loh Mai Kai

Loh Mai Kai, as the name goes, it is the favourite food of Cantonese or rather they are the one that found this chicken in glutinous rice.

Glutinous rice is a starch food when cooked, it becomes sticky and it can be very filling when you eat half the normal rice intake. You may even feel bloated eating glutinous rice. What I usually do to stop bloating is to drink some chinese tea. It is not an immediate effect of stopping bloating but it does helps to make you feel more comfortable.

Loh Mai Kai is similar to dumplings that is wrapped in banana leaves. In fact, you may be more creative too by adding in chesnuts. You can mix your vegetarian char siew with honey so that it tastes sweet and appetizing. Otherwise, you can have your creation by having dumplings wrapped in disposable bowls instead of banana leaves. However, your “dumplings” will lack of the smell of the banana leaves that lends the dumplings a unique fragrance and flavor.

The color of the rice depends on individual, it can be black or white. Usually with a mixture of oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and soy sauce paste, the rice will be black. The recipe that I had provided below is cooking black-colored rice.

Recipe of Loh Mai Kai (Chicken in Glutinous Rice)

Ingredients: Glutinous Rice Mushroom Vegetarian Chicken Vegetarian Char Siew Seasoning: Pepper Water Salt Mushroom Seasoning Dark Soy Sauce Soy Sauce Paste Oyster Sauce (Wan Jia Xiang Brand) Preparations: Dip the glutinous rice in water first while you prepare other ingredients. Fry the mushroom, vegetarian chicken and vegetarian char siew. Put the mushroom and vegetarian chicken in a pot. Add in all the seasoning shown above. In addition, add in starch to the pot of mushroom and vegetarian chicken. Let it boil and cooked. (Similar to cooking dark gravy with beancurd – look at the picture below and you will know what I am referring to, a dark gravy mixture) Filter out the glutinous rice and put inside a tin. In the tin, add in all the seasonings above again. Add in hot water into the tin of glutinous rice. Bring the tin of glutinous rice to steam. When the glutinous rice is cooked, put the mushroom, vegetarian chicken and vegetarian char siew at the bottom of the mould. Following on, fill up the mould with cooked glutinous rice. Bring it to steam for another 5 mins. Finishing: Scoop out the ready loh mai kai onto a plate and serve. You may serve it together with belachan chilli.

Thinking of what type of vegetarian char siew and vegetarian chicken you can use? Take a look at the pictures I had taken, use it as a reference for you.

Vegetarian B.B.Q Meat (Char Siew)	Vegetarian Fragrant Chicken (OKK)
Sliced Veg Char Siew	Dark Gravy Mixture

Vegetarian Creamy Mushroom Soup

Recently, I had an interest in cooking creamy mushroom soup. I searched high and low for a vegetarian creamy mushroom soup recipe, finally I found one at The Modern Vegetarian Recipes. This is the only recipe that I had found without any onions or garlics.

My creamy mushroom soup

Tadaa! This is my creamy mushroom soup. Does it looks similar to the recipe’s picture? Well, it looks quite similar but the taste is still not something that I wanted. My brother says it does not taste creamy enough. Not sure what it is lacking of? I did not use instant powder like campbell soup because I am not sure of the ingredients in the campbell soup. So the best way is to do it from scratch so I know what are the small small ingredients that can make up a wonderful creamy mushroom soup.

Recipe of Vegetarian Creamy Mushroom Soup

Ingredients: Fresh White Button Mushroom, Coarsely chopped Margarine Water Unsweetened Soy Milk Plain Flour Salt Pepper Herbs Preparations: Chopped the fresh white button mushroom coarsely. Fry the mushroom with margarine. Boil the water in a pot. When the water has boiled, pour in the unsweetened soy milk. Add in the flour slowly while continuously stirring. Make sure it is well-mixed. Put in the mushroom, herbs, salt and pepper. Continue stirring until the soup has thickened. Tips: Can put in some ham to increase the taste of the soup, more things to bite and adds in slight brown color to the soup Finishing: Scoop out a bowl of the creamy mushroom soup. Garnish it with some herbs. Serve it together with toasted bread and black pepper (optional).

Not very satisfied with my first try, I will try cooking it one more time. Aim to make it taste more creamy!

Mango Pudding using Konnyaku Powder

Mango Pudding – Top View	Mango Pudding – Side View

First time, I tried mango pudding using agar agar powder, however, the texture of the pudding is still not the texture that I usually eat at the restaurant. So this time I tried using Konnyaku Jelly Powder, see whether there is any difference.

The equipment and procedures is the same as the equipment and procedures stated in mango pudding using agar agar powder. As compared to using agar agar powder, Konnyaku powder seems to be more chewy, just like a jelly. When I try to scoop out the pudding, its a spoon of mango, it automatically separates out the mango and the pudding. This does not happen for the mango pudding when using agar agar powder. If you like the texture of a jelly, then you can do a mango pudding using Konnyaku Jelly powder. If you like the texture of a real pudding, then use agar agar powder. For me, I still prefer the texture of a real pudding. Lol.

The pudding made from konnyaku seems to be more shiny as compared to agar agar powder. Haha, or maybe it could be due to the lighting when I took the picture.

After several attempts of making mango pudding, I always use an estimate amount of water and evaporated milk. I am not sure whether this is due to the amount of water or is it the powder difference. This is because the weight of each packet of Konnyaku Jelly powder and the weight of each packet of Agar agar powder is different, so the amount of water I had added is different. The recipe below will be a rough gauge of how much water you need to put.

Recipe of Mango Pudding using Konnyaku Jelly Powder

Ingredients: 1 packet of Konnyaku Jelly Powder (10g) 1420 ml of water 90ml evaporated milk 8 – 10 tbsp of sugar 2 drops of Konnyaku Mango Color 1/4 teaspoon Konnyaku Mango Flavour (optional) 1 Mango Preparations: Cut the mango into dices. Pour the Konnyaku powder into water gradually and stir till boil. Add evaporated milk, sugar, mango color and mango flavour. Stir well. Turn off flame and put mango into the pot. Pour the mixture into the moulds. Chill to set the moulded mango pudding in the refrigerator before serve. Finishing: Once mango pudding has settled and chilled, remove from fridge and serve to your guests. Tips: You may cut half a cherry to decorate on top of the mango pudding. The mango flavour is optional but it can add on the smell of the mango pudding to make it more tasty. The amount of sugar to add in depends on you, you may want to add more. Taste it while mixing. Do take note that when the mixture is hot, it will definitely taste very sweet, once it has cooled down and chilled, it will not be as sweet. Notes: This recipe can make about 10 – 15 mango pudding depending on the size of your mould.