KCC: Birthday Party Food - UBE CAKE

January is a special month for me, because it's my birthday month! My 7 yr old son was also born in January a few days before mine, and ever since he was born we tend to focus now on his birthday wishes, like what kind of theme for his party, who to invite to his party or what kind of cake to have.  So unfortunately, I end up spending days making his boy-themed cakes and planning his parties.  If I had a chance to make party food request this year, I'd have special two: my mom's kare-kare and the other is ube cake.  My mom is a great cook, but cakes aren't her forte so I'd let her spoil me by making my ultimate favourite dish.  The cake-making would be left to myself even on my birthday.  I got to admit, I do long for Red Ribbon's Ube cake, but because I can't have that here I have to try making it from scratch.

My aunt sent me a few bottles of McCormick Ube flavouring from the Philippines.  It's purple coloured essence, so you don't have to add food colouring.  If you can't avail of it then you can try using yam essence (try oriental stores) and add the purple food colouring yourself. 

1 cup        cake flour, sifted
3/4 cup      caster sugar
1 tsp        baking powder
1/4  tsp      salt
1/3 cup      canola oil
4              eggs, separated
1/3 cup     water
1 tsp        ube flavouring
1/4 cup     milk
1/4 tsp      cream of tartar
1^1/2 cup   cream
1/4 cup     icing sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp     ube flavouring or purple food colouring

• Preheat oven to 180C (not fan-forced) oven, and line 1 (9-inch) round pan or 2 (6-inch) round pan
• Sift together cake flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt.
• In another bowl, whisk oil, egg yolks, water, ube flavouring and milk. 
• Gently blend the egg mixture to the cake flour until smooth, being careful not to over beat.
• Whisk the egg whites and the cream of tartar until frothy. Set mixer on highest speed, and gradually add 1/2 cup of caster sugar.
• Gently fold the ube mixture into the eggwhites.
• Pour batter in pans and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until done. To test, insert skewer into cake and it should come out clean.
• Let the cakes cool in pan for five minutes then invert on rack to cool completely
• For the frosting, whip the cream, ube flavour (or purple colouring) and gradually add the icing sugar until stiff peaks form.
• To assemble, split the cake in half. Trim the top of cake to make it flat and even.  Place the trimmings in a food processor and set aside.
• Spread whipped cream on one cake layer and top with the second layer. Frost all sides and top of cake. Sprinkle cake crumbs on sides and top. Decorate with piped cream to finish.

Alternative:  Add strips of macapuno in the centre of cake to make ube-macapuno cake.

PS. Here's my mom's Kare-Kare and I ate so much of it with bagoong!

KCC: Releno - Stuffed Red Chili

When I was younger, my Mom used to stuff red bell peppers with pork mince, and I never liked them. I found the bell pepper too thick and too strong tasting even with dashings of ketchup.  Whilst shopping today, I wondered if I could recreate the dish I despise with something of sweeter taste, like the long sweet red chillies.  The size of the chilli didn't scare me, because heat and size are inversely related to each other. 

So, I tried it with the recipe that follows below, and I surprised myself that I enjoyed it very much. The chillies weren't hot and gave a hint of sweetness. Because the chillies were flat, it was very easy to pan fry them (actually burnt the bottom but that gave more flavour) and meat to red chilli ratio was just right.

STUFFED RED CHILLIES

2 long red chillies
200 g lean pork mince
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 small tomato
1 tsp soy sauce
black pepper and salt
1 egg, beaten

Saute the garlic and tomatoes. Add the pork and seasonings, and brown until cooked. Take off from heat. Split the two chillies lengthwise, and remove seeds.  Add the beaten egg to cooled meat filling.  Spread a quarter of the meat mixture on one chilli half.  Just before pan frying, dust the meat filling with cornflour.  Place a lid over the frying pan to assist cooking the chillies. Flip carefully to cook the meat side.

KCC - Baked Lumpiang Shanghai

My two young boys both love lumpiang shanghai, and who wouldn't when it's super crunchy when fried. However, I rarely cook that now, because I want to prepare healthier (low fat) options for them. So, I took this KCC opportunity to experiment on cooking a healthier version of this favourite fried dish - Baked Lumpiang Shanghai.

For the recipe, follow my first post of lumpiang shanghai here. Lightly brush the spring roll wrapper with canola oil. Place meat mixture (about as thick as a thumb) at the bottom edge of wrapper and roll. Position the spring rolls over a rack (so that they won't sweat and stick on tray) on a baking tray, and ensure to leave space in between the spring rolls. I brushed the spring rolls with oil to help it brown, but I found that it didn't really brown much. Perhaps next time brushing with beaten egg will give more brown results. Bake in 180C oven for 10-15 min.

The verdict: The outside and ends are crispy, but the inside was not as crunchy as I hoped. My two young boys ate them like they didn't know the difference between baked and fried, and they'll like them as long as they eat them with tomato sauce (ketchup). Overall, I'm pleased with the experiment, because a) for 1/2 kg meat mixture (or 20 spring rolls) I only used 1.5 Tb of oil for brushing and b) my house didn't smell of fried oil the whole night.

Kulinarya Cooking Club  - August Challenge (Lumpia)

Kulinarya Cooking Club - Lola's Pancit

Here's my very first challenge for Kulinarya Cooking Club, and I already have a confession to make: I'm a rice girl!  I love rice and from time to time love things eaten with bread or with pasta, but I hardly look forward to eating asian noodles.  Only in the last few years that I've been cooking noodles, because I've been exposed and drawn to the spicy and flavoursome Malaysian/Singaporean noodle dishes, like laksa, char keow teow, mamak mee goreng and mee siam.  My children, on the other hand, love ALL noodles, so I'll post here my mom's pancit that she cooks for my children.  

3 cakes of fried yellow noodles*(Ayam brand)
100 g sotanghon
2 cups of shredded cooked chicken breast or chicken meat from frames
1 L chicken stock**
5 cups cabbage, shredded
2 carrots, julienned
1 brown onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 T fish sauce
2 T soy sauce
white or black pepper
and of course calamansi (or lemon) to serve

Saute garlic and onion.  Add the vegetables and chicken. Set aside.  Place chicken stock in pot and add the instant noodles one at a time until it partially softens. Do the same for the sotanghon.  Once all the noodles are partially cooked, transfer everything in the pot. Season and cook a little longer together until noodles are cooked and the stock evaporates until noodles are not too wet. Be careful not to over mix and over cook otherwise the noodles will break.

* instant noodles that come without the seasonings
**chicken stock: Boil 3 chicken frames/bones in approximately 1.5 L of water. Once it boils, lower heat to simmer for an hour. Collect chicken meat from the bones and put aside. Strain the chicken stock, and place in refrigerator until fat settles and solidifies. Discard solidified fat.

Let's have Green tea Kit Kat!

When my cousin first mentioned this to me, I was intrigued and wanted to see if it was true. My google searches led me to find a wide range of Kit Kat flavours the japanese make - from grape, lemon, ,blueberry, coffee, chestnut, strawberry to green tea, and flavours that come seasonal, like cherry blossom. I was so thrilled when I saw a shelf of japanese Kit Kats in four different flavours in Miracle asian store in World Square, Sydney. Each packet cost $4.95, and I grabbed one green tea Kit Kat just to try. The packaging is very cute, and the Kit Kat green colour is true indication that it's green tea in flavour. However, I was dissappointed to discover that the tea flavour is very weak and it tasted mostly white chocolate. Perhaps it's good-tasting to some, but I love to drink green tea so I look for it's intense but lovely bitterness in food flavoured with it. This isn't going to be the end of this though, because I'll make a note of this and one day I'll attempt to try my own green tea flavoured "Kit Kats".

Fairy Paige

This is Paige's, my 2-year old cute fairy neice, birthday cake my mom and I made together.

Ban fast foods!

Rearing children is a daunting challenge, and I always hope that I'll succeed in it and raise happy, healthy children with good morals and good solid education. There are children who succeed in school academically or are wealthy or famous or have all, and to me that's so immaterial. If there's own thing that I would envy the most about children is this: eating healthily and are physically active. But this wish is hard for me to do when I honestly love junkfood, and hate exercising, so how do I show good examples to my children?

For a start, I thought I should ban them from fast food restaurants. You know what I'm talking about, like those that have the big golden arches, or the big buckets in the sky of KFC. Not sounding like a hypocrite, I admit that I LOVE these foods - the juicy fried chickens plus its gravy and the big fat chips. When I was younger, I used to collect all the toys that they promoted, and enjoyed playing in their indoor playgrounds. Now older and little wiser, I'm still quicker to run to these shops than to head to those 'healthy' salad/sandwich shops. But for my children's sake, I think I should put an end to my visits to these international fast foods that sell food rich in cholesterol and saturated fats.

You see, my reasoning is if you don't expose them now to these fast food restaurants I believe that they'll never look for them in the future or even prefer eating them over a healthier choice. My analogy to my new practice is this: I don't prefer to eat lamb because we were never exposed to eat it when I was younger; so I'm hoping that my children would feel the same from fast foods.

I don't think I'm terrible for doing this, and I'm not going extremes either. I've heard of moms who constantly say, "No, that's too sweet", "too salty" or "too oily" to foods offered to their children. But I can't be there all the time to patrol my childrens' foods. So the best I can do is to let them have a strong foundation on good food choices. Perhaps for a start, the best I can do is to stir them in another direction, like a decent cafe that sells healthier burgers. I am not banning them from eating the burgers and fries, but I'm discouraging them from restaurants that lure them with toys, merchandise and playgrounds to buy their greasy, less nutritious food.

Recently, my son was asked if he wanted to eat McDonalds, and he apparently said no. Both me and my husband were moved hearing he refused, for now we know that our little experiment worked! Hopefully, this would continue until he gets older. When he's older, I'm sure he would be able to understand what the tv/internet advertisers are trying to sell, but if we continue to show him there are better choices than junk foods then hopefully there's nothing to worry about.

Just before I close, a report on the news today says that alarming numbers of fast food advertiserments are found on tv and internet. They attract kids with toys, mascot appearances and computer games.

Thanks to my love for my children, I am finding that I'm eating less of these fast foods too. Hmm, next hurdle is the exercise part....now how do I do that?

Eggsemptional!

Year after year, I always see crafty ways to decorate eggs, like dyeing or glueing glittery objects on them, and I wished that I have the time to decorate at least two dozens or more of these eggs. Since you want a decent number of eggs for kids to find, I spent more time preparing them than the actual game of hunt. A few ways I could prepare the eggs were using the following:

Hard boiled eggs: They're ok, but if the children couldn't find the eggs, days later you would by tracing the scent of rotten eggs coming from your sofa or wherever they were hidden.

Emptied raw eggs: To empty the eggs, prick both ends of the ends with a pin and blow the contents out from one hole. Sounds easy? No. I tried this many times, and it hurt so much to blow the eggwhite and yolk if you have tiny pin-holes. My ears almost burst from blowing excessively! If you want the contents easily out, you have to make a hole as big as a button which is too big if you bought a small 50g egg or quail eggs.

Chocolate eggs: They're ok, but just be warned that it will be hard to stop your children from eating ALL of their finds, so you just wish and pray that they either find only 1 or none.

So, I was 'hoppy' to find a dozen plastic eggs for $3, which cost as much as real eggs, hanging in the supermarket, and I think they're the best eggs ever to use for the hunt!

Why?

Has the approved "tick" of the Australian Heart Foundation - it's cholesterol and sugar-free - you've just saved yourself future scary visits to the doctor and dentist.

They don't break and crack - my kids throw them high in the air, knock 2 eggs against each other, put them under their trucks and run over them.

They float - they fell in a pond and there was no need to get your scuba suit to dive for them.

They don't melt - very good when you want to hide outdoors and it's scorching 30C and above.

They are non-perishable - no need to fear that you're filling up rodents and other animals around.

Completely recyclable - you can use them next year and year after and year after...

HAPPY EASTER!

PS. can somebody hide the eggs for me to find?

Banana bread

One noticable difference found here in Sydney that's not in Perth (yet) is their love of banana bread! They're crazy about it, and it's a phenomenon here. Most cafes sell it, and listen to this - they serve it to you toasted. That's right, toasted with melted spread of butter.

Six months ago, my husband came home and was ecstatic about his new breakfast discovery from a cafe near his workplace. He said I ought to try toasting a thick slice of banana bread, and I would be gobsmacked. In fact, his sister and the rest of his family knew about it too long before him, so it seemed like he was second-last to know and me the last.

Keen to give it a try, I wanted to bake one so I can taste what he meant. Shortly after that discussion, I was given a delicious store-bought loaf before I could bake my own. Yes, toasting it tasted different and new, and it was good. I normally like my banana cake served cold, for that's how my love-at-first-bite on banana cakes started when I attended my mom's cousin's wedding in the 80's. I still like it cold for I prefer cold desserts over warm ones, so a warm banana bread isn't really my ideal choice.

This recipe I recently tried is leaning a little on the dry side because it's a bread not a cake recipe. Cakes would call for more butter in the recipe. It's moist, but not super moist. It also dries up when kept in fridge (I like to keep it in the fridge to prevent microbes from growing). Hence, toasting it on a dry fry pan, a toaster or sandwich press, plus a thin smear of light margarine (for cholesterol-free indulgence and I picked marge with low trans-fat) makes it easier to swallow.

Adapted from: Taste.com.au

Ingredients
300 g self-raising flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
70 g (1/3 cup) brown sugar
185 ml (3/4 cup) milk
100 g melted butter canola oil
1 egg, lightly whisked
250 g (1 cup, 2 pieces) mashed ripe bananas

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush a 6cm-deep, 9.5 x 22cm (base measurement) loaf pan with oil to grease. Line the base and sides with non-stick baking paper. Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon together into a large mixing bowl. Stir in sultanas and sugar, and make a well in the centre.
Combine the milk, oil, egg and banana in a large jug. Pour into the centre of the flour mixture and use a wooden spoon to stir until combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean. Set aside for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool. Once cool, cut the loaf into 1cm-thick slices. Enjoy!

Bento #4

rockmelons, grapes and cheese sandwich

Bento #3

Terriyaki chicken, broccoli and rockmelon

Bento #2

Ham sandwich, grapes and UHT milk

Don't dump it!

Here in our city, we are supplied with 2 crates for recycling - one for paper/cardboard and the another for other recycle items. Earlier, m noticed that I put aside things for recycling, and now he's the one patrolling what goes in the recycling bin. He excitedly points out to me the recycling logos in everyday items and asks me which crate to put it. m tells his dad, who throws recycle items in the wrong bin, that they need to be recycled. He also now knows that paper, glass, plastics and metals are to be recycled.

I'm glad that at this early age he now knows how to help the community and our environment. I hope that this sets good example to all and specially to the adults to think twice about our wastes. Remember, we are doing this for their generation and for their future children.

Recycling Near You is a great site that lets you know where you can take items that you can recycle, like car tyres, organic/plant wastes, plastic bags, etc. Some waste centres take the ff items:

Scrap Metals, Gas Bottles,Vehicle Batteries, Sump Oil, Paint, Fire Extinguishers,Expanded Plastics (Polystyrene), Glass, Bottles and Jars, Aluminium Cans, Newspapers, Office Paper
Envelopes Without a Window, Envelopes With a Window, Phone Books, Pizza Boxes (clean), Egg Cartons, Cardboard, Steel Food Cans, Steel Paint Cans (empty), Steel Aerosol Cans (empty), Grass Clippings, Small Branches, Twigs, Garden Prunings, Weeds, Leaves, Flowers, Small Timber Offcuts, Untreated Timber, whitegoods, milk crates, car tyres, Plastics marked with numbers recycling #1-7.

School for 4 yrs old

The other night, my attendance to my very first Parents & Teachers meeting in m's school was a testament that my son actually goes to school. Dropping him at school and picking him up doesn't give that feeling, and I wonder why. Perhaps because I see that he's enjoying there and he 'belongs' there for that time being, so it doesn't hurt me much. But me attending the school's meeting, makes me feel that I am part of something now all thanks to him.

The discussion centred around the school's philosophies and activities. They believe that the children are the 'teachers' and the staff are there to enhance and build up the learning depending on the children's interests. They don't have a 'structure' or institution-like activities, for they don't want to impose things to children and they would rather let the children dictate what they want to do. They are there to encourage creativity, imagination, socialisation and independent learning. They don't teach ABC's, numbers, shapes and colours there, for they rather would foster self esteem, self awareness, social and communication skills that are deemed more important for the children's readiness to Kindergarten (for 5 year olds in NSW) next year.

Upon hearing what they have to say about how they run the school, I actually was moved by their dedication to the importance of learning for these children. So, I must say that I do support this kind of new form of education to the children at this age now that they're blossoming with enthusiam, full of energy and curiosity.

Another thing that I love about m's school is how they are strict about what goes in the lunchbox. Apart from anaphylactic foods (like peanuts, eggs, sesame, nuts) it's strictly NO chocolates, lollies and chips (crisps)! If caught they'll pull it out of the box! Cool! It's sometimes confusing to me to decide what will fill him up during a busy day, but at least there's their little guide on what I should put there in his box and forces me to think healthily.

Max Brenner

Ever since hubby M stumbled upon this cafe in Sydney years ago, I longed to check out the place for myself. Of course I was over the moon when we saw one in the city inside David Jones and the other is in Manly by the wharf.
He got a "Suckao" which is comprised of a little chocolate melting pot, chocolate buttons and a jug of milk. You pour milk and add buttons in the pot, and once the chocolate's melted you "suck" it up using the straw/spoon.

I ordered mocha that arrived in a cute 'hug mug'. Best accompanied with a serving of their waffles drizzled with chocolate!

Sunny flowers

My living Van Gogh - picked from unwanted sunflower plants in Landsdale Farm School.

Chinese New Year dinner

Celebrated Chinese New Year with M's sister C's family in Sydney.

C prepared a scrumptuous yee sang, a salad of raw fish, thinly cut vegetables and crispy wonton with a sweet and sour dressing. It's believed to be a Chinese Malaysian/Singaporean traditional Chinese New Year dish, and it symbolizes togetherness when everyone at the table joins in the fun of tossing the salad.

A duck, a symbol of fidelity, was served in many ways: peking duck pancakes, fried rice and in soup! Too busy eating, hence no pictures of the other dishes. For pancake recipe, see below.

And last but not the least, a whole steamed (barramundi)fish. This is apparently a symbol of prosperity, for the chinese word for fish "yu" sounds like the word for richness or abundance. It's also believed to make your wishes come true for this year.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Pancake Recipe:

1/2 cup plain flour
2 tablespoons cornflour
1 cup water
1 egg
2 tablespoons oil
1 Peking duck (see note)
6 green onions, washed
1/2 cup hoisin sauce

Method:
Combine and whisk flour, cornflour, water, egg and oil.
Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Brush with little oil. Pour batter into frying pan and quickly swirl pan to spread the thin pancake to about 15cm. Cook for 2 minutes. Turn and cook for a further 1 minute.

How to enjoy:
Remove skin and meat from duck. Thinly slice both skin and meat. Cut onions and cucumber into 10cm lengths.
Place some duck skin and meat, 1 onion and cucumber and 1 teaspoon of hoisin sauce onto each pancake. Roll up. Serve.

Adapted from Taste.com.au

Year of the Rat

Sydney celebrated Chinese New Year with a special parade through town. The sun was shining and it was a perfect opportunity to watch the loud and merry parade.

Gong Xi Fa Chai! May you all have a prosperous and blessed new year!

My New Year's Resolution

I'm not good in making a new year's resolution and neither very good at following it. So, year after year I don't bother to list, for surely I'll frustratingly jot the same for the following year's. However, after seeing Randy Pausch's last lecture, something struck me and made me rethink how I behave everyday. In addition, he also reminded me to value people and not things. I suppose it's not yet too late to make up a resolution, but instead of making a long list of "must-do's" for this year, I thought there is just one thing that I must do this year and beyond...

...appreciate life simply and live everyday to the max.

Happy New 2008 and Chinese New Year and thank God for giving us another year to live beautifully!

Mission 4

My boy m loves anything space-related: the solar system, rocket ships, asteriods and meteors. He loves calling out the planets and drills me with, "What's between Venus and Mars?" It's embarassing to admit that I don't know the answer and as I type had to open another internet window just to know it.

For his birthday party fun, space theme was of course the most obvious to pick. With Daddy d's help, the kids played "Moon rock Hunting" (treasure hunt), "Musical planets" (musical chairs), "Pin the martian's nose" and pulled a rocket ship pinata.

Lunch wasn't exactly freeze-dried food, like what the real astronauts eat. Thankfully, ours were better and yummier courtesy of my helpful moms, aunties and uncle. We had "lunar lasagna", "neptune noodles", "super galaxy salad", "mini chicken moon pies", "melon moon balls".

Landsdale Farm School

m has recently developed a liking to his huge collection of stuff animals, in particular is his wooly little lamb, whom he named Shauny. He got all excited when he met a live one in Landsdale Farm School!

He saw some pigs, horses and goats having their breakfasts or morning tea, for it was about 9.30am then.

Here's m feeding a friendly little goat. Not shown here in this picture was the goat named after yours truly!

Ha-Lu restaurant

I received two recommendations to go to Ha-Lu, a new Japanese restaurant in Perth, so it's my 1st choice for my belated birthday dinner with M. We selected dishes that was out of ordinary (meaning, our usual tempura or terriyaki or katsu). And I was glad that we tried new tastes, because I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I prefer sake cold sake. M likes it warm.

Pork belly in sweet soy broth.

Duck and aubergines with Madeira Tamari sauce. This was my favourite for tonight!

Greens and handmade tofu with sesame dressing.

Wagyu (or Kobe) beef tataki. This is my first time to try both the much-coveted beef and to eat beef raw.

A selection of delicious sashimi.

Cold fried fish fillets in Namban sauce.