More mochi...

Made red bean strawberry mochi this time. The sweetness of the red bean paste offsets the tartness of the strawberry. Simply buy ready-made red bean paste and wrap the strawberry up before final wrapping with mochi skin =).


Made for my ex-colleague. One strawberry shortcake mochi and one strawberry red bean mochi.

Strawberry Mochi 雪莓娘

The first and last time i ate strawberry mochi is in year 2002 in Japan Sendai. It was one of the best thing i ate in Japan. Finally made myself to make it. A lot of work but it is a fulfilling one, fulfill my craving and my stomach.

Ingredients:
1. Fresh Strawberry
2. Whipping cream (300g) with 30g sugar (whipped till stiff)
3. Sponge cake
4. Mochi skin

To make Sponge cake, please follow the steps below:
Ingredients:
3 Large eggs
90g caster sugar
90g cake flour (sifted at least 2 times)
30ml warm milk
30g warm melted butter

1. Whisk eggs with sugar until mixed. Then transfer to hot water bath and continue to whisk non-stop until sugar melted. Remove from hot water bath once the bowl and the egg mixture is warm to touch (about 60 degree celcius)
2. Use a electric beater and beat until the egg mixture is foamy and thick. Test the thickness by lifting up the beater and drip the egg mixture to draw circles. The circle should stay for 3 sec.
3. Beat in warm milk for few more minutes
4. Use a spatula and fold in the flour in 2 or 3 batches (Do not over fold).
5. Fold in the warm butter
6. Pour the mixture into a greased 18cm round tin with baking paper lined.
7. Bake for 18-20mins (When cooked, press the surface of the sponge cake and it shouldnt sink) at 180 degree celcius
8. Unmould the cake immediately and let it cool down on wire rack.

To make Mochi Skin, please follow the steps below:
Ingredients:
150g Shiratamako flour (maybe can substitute with rice flour/glutinous flour)
80g Sugar
1cup Water
Katakuriko flour (potato starch)

1.Mix the water + sugar + shiratamako in a bowl.
2.Microwave for 2 min.
3.Stir with a spoon until the mixture is smooth and elastic.
4.Add 1-2 tablespoon of water (note: do not add too much water if the mixture is very soft). Mix.
5.Microwave for 1 min.
6.Repeat step 3-5 for about 3-4 times until the mixture is smooth, soft, elastic and slightly transparent.
7.Allow the mixture to cool for few minutes.

To make the strawberry mochi:
1. Place generous amount of katakuriko flour on board and drop a spooonful of mochi on it. Coat the top with katakuriko flour and flatten the mochi with a rolling pin or by hand.
2. Line the mochi skin in a small round bowl
3. Drop 2 spoonful of whipped cream and place a whole strawberry in
4. Cover with whipped cream
5. Place sponge cake (can cut using cup) and wrap with the hemming of the mochi skin)
6. Use a cupcake paper holder to hold the strawberry mochi
7. Chill and serve

Homemade Halal Bak Chang

This year, i made my own halal bak chang at home. It looks difficult to make but actually it is very easy. Just that it is time consuming as u need to prepare the ingredients (stir fry) and wrap with bamboo leaves. The cooking takes at least 2 hours of boiling. I made both salted and sweet bak chang. As this is my first attempt to wrap bak chang, i ended up wrapping mini bak chang which is palm size big. I searched the website for instructions of how to wrap the bak chang and tried to follow the instructions but somehow my first attempt failed terribly. So i ended up seeking help from my neighbour (an old lady who is very nice to us) to teach me how to wrap. Will upload the recipe soon. Belows are the pix of my bak chang.

Homemade Bagel

Bread is generally halal but i found this bagel recipe which is so easy to make and taste good too. Give it a try and sandwich your favorite ingredients like cheese, halal chicken ham etc and u will get a healthy halal sandwich =).

Below is taken from a baker's blog.

4 cups bread flour
1 Tbls sugar
1 1/2 tsps salt
1 Tbls vegetable oil
2 tsps instant yeast
1-1/4- 1-1/2 cups of warm water.

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. You don't have to worry about soaking the yeast when you use instant yeast (most yeast sold these days is instant yeast). The dough should feel stiff, but add the extra water if it's really stiff, or you can't get all the dry flour incorporated.

Plop the dough down onto the counter, and knead for about ten minutes, or until the dough is uniform and smooth.
Cut the dough into 8 equal sized balls, and let rest for 10-20 minutes.

Pre heat your oven to 425.

Now, take each of the dough balls and using two hands, roll it into a little snake on the counter. When the snake is longer than the width of your two hands, wrap it around your dominant roiling hand. The dough rope should be wrapped so the overlapping ends are together at your palm, near the start of your fingers. Now take the two overlapping ends, and use your palm to squish/roll these two ends together.

Once the dough is fused, you should have a perfectly circular bagel-to-be! This is the only part of the process that can take a little practice before your bagels will look really professional. Don't get discouraged if they don't look perfect, it just takes practice!

Let your bagels rest on the counter for about 20 minutes, and meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil, and grease a large baking tray lightly.

You can just rub a splash of vegetable oil and rub it around.

After the 20 minute wait, your bagels will start to look puffy, and it's time to get them boiling! Add them as many at a time as you can to your boiling water without crowding them.

Boil for about a minute, turn them over, and boil for another minute.

Take them out a let dry for a minute and then place them on your oiled baking tray.

Repeat until all the bagels are boiled.

Add the tray to the oven, and after 10 minutes, flip the bagels over, bake for another ten minutes; and they're done!

Let them cool for at least 20 minutes, get the cream cheese ready, and feast on what's got to be one of the best weekend brunch treats possible!

Halal Japanese Curry Recipe!!!

I used to buy the japanese curry roux from supermarket (before i became muslim) as it is so easy to use and the taste of japanese curry is so different from chinese or malay curry. It is best serve with nice hot japanese rice. As i know it is impossible to get halal japanese curry roux from supermarket, finally i challenged myself to make the roux from scratch and to my surprise it is pretty simple and the taste is pretty close (about 80%) to the one sold in supermarket.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp butter
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp grated garlic
2 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp curry powder
2 and 1/2 cup bouillon (Chicken or beef stock, can get the knorr's brand)
1/2 tsp garam masala

Preparation:
Heat 1 Tbsp of butter in a skillet and saute onion slices on low heat until they are brown. Add garlic and ginger and saute well. Set aside. Heat 1 Tbsp of butter in a medium pot. Put flour and saute on low heat. Add curry powder and mix well. Add bouillon little by little, stirring well. Add onion in the sauce. Simmer the sauce until thickened. Add garam masala at last.


Japanese Chicken Curry
Ingredients:

12 chicken legs (or beef slices)
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 clove fresh ginger root
1/4 lb Japanese curry roux
3 cups water
1/2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
(Can add potato and carrot too)
*vegetable oil

Preparation:
Sprinkle salt, pepper, and curry powder in chicken legs. Slice onion thinly. Heat some oil in a pan and saute chopped ginger, garlic, and sliced onion. Add chicken legs in the pan and saute well. Pour water in the pan and simmer until chicken legs are softened. Add curry roux and stir lightly. Simmer for 5 minutes.
*Makes 4 servings.

Halal Dim Sum @ Puteri Pacific JB

One of the best halal authentic dim sum can be found at Puteri Pacific Hotel in Johore Bahru. Here are some photos... don't the photos look yummy? :-)

Miso without Alcohol added!!!!

Most Japanese Miso has added alcohol to enhance the taste. Just a month ago, i dropped by Isetan Orchard to check out any suitable halal japanese items to add to my mini-NTUC panty unit (that's what most of my friends said about my pantry unit, it has many many food and condiments). My husband likes miso soup so i was checking for any suitable miso paste. Found this miso has no added alcohol which is shown by the blur pix's red label. The ingredients are just soy bean, rice and salt. So this should be 100% halal. So hope this will be useful to ppl out there craving for halal miso.

To make miso soup, all u need is water, miso paste (add to your own preference), dashi powder (replace by ikan bilis maggie cube). Then just dump in what u want to be 'swimming' inside your miso...u can add fresh seaweed (can be purchased from NTUC), tofu (cut into small cubes), straw mushroom etc.

If you are interested to buy the miso paste, u can check out the miso website for more information.
http://www.maruman-miso.com/2syouhin_miso.htm