Crepes with Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream.

Today i got back home at about 3ish , slightly hungry due to the early lunch or rather brunch i had before heading over to college. I asked my mom what's there to munch on for tea but as expected , the usual answer from her, nothing. Was slightly disappointed but i knew that now its all up to me to feed my hungry stomach.

I know i've got a tub of raspberry ice cream in the fridge but i definitely didn't wanna go pig out on that tub therefore , i thought of making crepes to go with it , at least everyone at home can have it as a tea time snack.

INGREDIENTS

* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 2 eggs
* 1/2 cup water
* 1/2 cup low-fat milk
* 2 tbsp olive oil / melted butter

Method:
1) Sift the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl.
2) In another bowl , mix and whisk all the wet ingredients together and pour into the flour.
3) Stir and whisk until combined. Sift the batter to remove any lumps before making crepes.
4) Heat your non-stick pan over medium heat and oil the pan with some butter or olive oil. Pour 1/4 cup of the batter onto the pan.
5) Cook it for approximately 2-3 minutes , turn and cook the other side.
6) Repeat step 4 and 5 for the remaining batter.
7) Serve it with your favourite type of ice cream.

Note:
For those who likes your crepes a lil buttery , add in the melted butter instead of the olive oil.

This recipe makes about 9 pieces of crepes.

Snow-Skin Mooncakes

Since this is my first time making mooncake, i'd start it off with the easy one (at least it is to me), that is the snow-skin mooncake. Snow-skin also known as ice-skin mooncakes by some, resembles the traditional mooncakes with some modern modifications to it.  When i started making these beautiful babies, my mom asked me , what encouraged me to try my hands on this and i replied her saying that it's expensive to buy it and also why do i wanna fork out my cash for an over-priced item where i can make it at home with my own measurements of ingredients.

Since its for home consumption therefore no colouring added to it. Over here i've 3 different colours of snow-skin : light green (pandan paste) , pink (strawberry paste) and the purple ones (blueberry paste). The reason i used these paste is to give the skin a lil flavouring to tone down the smell of koh flour ( fried glutinous rice flour ) and krimwell (shortening that has the buttery smell to it).

Ingredients

SNOW-SKIN
* 200g koh flour
* 140g icing sugar
* 60g Krimwell
* 240g ice water


Method:
1) Sift koh flour and the icing sugar together into a big bowl.
2) Add in Krimwell and rub it in until it resembles crumbles and add in the water and mix thoroughly. 
3) Add in your favourite paste or colouring if you fancy, otherwise a white snow-skin will do as well.


Note:
This recipe makes about 20-22 pieces using a 5.2cm diameter plastic mooncake mould.


Those that are interested in colouring their snow-skin its advisable to add the colouring in the ice water before pouring it into your crumbles. This will give you an even colour on the snow skin.

FILLING

Yellow Eggy Custard
* 80g fine granulated sugar sugar
* 20g superfine flour
* 20g cornflour
* 15g custard powder
* 50ml thin coconut milk
* 75ml low fat milk
* 1 beaten egg yolk
* 25g melted butter
* yellow colouring (optional)


Method:
1) Sift all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
2) Melt the butter and set aside to let it cool.
3) Mix all the wet ingredients except the butter and mix well.
4) Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix it thoroughly.
5) Pour in the melted butter into the egg mixture as you stir it.
6) Sift the egg mixture over and over until there's no residue left.
7) Pour the egg mixture into a bowl or plate and steam for 15 minutes or until the mixture is cook thoroughly.
8) Remove and let it cool and shape it into a round.


Note:


This eggy custard represents the egg yolk in most mooncakes.
You can make your own filling or purchase the ready made to cut down on your cooking and preparation time. 


For the above mooncakes , i've 3 different flavours , each with an eggy custard in it.

They are :
Light green ones: Pandan Lotus paste + Eggy Custard
Pink ones: Pure Lotus paste & Melon Seeds + Eggy Custard
Purple ones: Yam Lotus paste + Eggy Custard.

Khai Yat Sai - Omelette

It is also spelled as Kai Yat Sai, its a square stuffed eggs; a type of Thai Omelette. This simple egg dish is one of my best friend's fav!

You can basically stuff your eggs with any type of filling you want. Be as creative as you want. You can even decorate your omelette with strips of tomato sauce if you like.

Ingredients:

Filling
* finely chopped onions
* finely chopped garlic
* chopped tomatoes
* prawns ( shelled and deveined)
* mince meat ( i used lean pork)
* finely chopped carrot ( i substituted with long beans)
* freshly ground black pepper
* sugar to taste
* tomato sauce
* dark soy sauce ( a drop or two)
* chopped coriander

Method :
1) Season the mince meat with sugar, black pepper and fish sauce
2) Season the prawns with pepper and fish sauce
3) Saute the garlic and onions
4) Add in the the minced meat , long beans and prawns
5) Next, add in the chopped fresh tomatoes and stir
6) Add water/chicken broth, let it simmer before adding tomato sauce and dark soy sauce
7) Lastly , add in the chopped coriander. Sugar to taste
8) Set aside

Omelette
* eggs
* fish sauce

Method:
1) Break the eggs in a bowl, add a few dashes of fish sauce and whisk it
2) Glaze the non-stick pan with butter or oil
3) Pour just enough of egg into the pan to form a thin sheet
4) Once the mixture has cooked, spoon the filling and place it in the center of the egg and fold the sides so that it looks like a square
5) Switch off the gas
6) Use an average size of plate to cover the squared omelette and turn your non-stick pan up side down.
7) There you have it, your Khai Yat Sai is ready to be served.

For those that dont quite fancy the distinctive taste of ketchup, you can add in a lil chilli sauce or some chopped bird eye's chilli or dried chilli to give it the "heat". Freshly ground black pepper would be just as good. I gotta admit i'm not so much of a ketchup fan but when it comes to this dish, i simply love it!

Peanut Butter French Toast

Peanut butter has been my favourite since god knows when! This mornin when i got up, i had the craving for peanut butter; i love both the creamy and the crunchy ones. So i decided to make peanut butter french toast when i got home from running some errands. 

Despite havin a lil sore throat, i still insist on havin both peanut butter and black pepper at a go. I guess the temptations are too great to ignore. Besides who can ignore peanut butter & black pepper? Of course i'm referin to those avid fans of these two items. 

For the egg batter, i've had a good amount of black pepper in it. Usually i opt for coarse black pepper due to the texture and also the taste of it when you bite into it!

For those that want a lil saltyness to the combination u can either add a few drops of fish sauce or light soy sauce. Normally ppl would add a dash or two of light soy sauce instead of fish sauce. 

Fish sauce gives the egg a different taste and for those that wondered how come the eggs strips you had in a Thai restaurant taste differently or they have a certain distinctive taste to it ( a lil salty & aromatic hint), fish sauce's the secret.

Once you've got the egg batter ready, spread the peanut butter on a slice of bread or both slices if you want a thicker texture or if you want more melted peanut butter oozing out when you bite onto it. You can cut it in any way you desire but for me i cut it diagonally on both sides and ended up with 4 cute triangles.

Heat up the non-stick pan and glaze it with marjerin or butter then coat the triangles lighty with the egg batter. Do not let it soaked for too long for it will turn the bread soggy. You wouldnt wanna bite into a soggy bread would you? Then pan-fry the triangles on both sides and dish out onto a paper towel to absorb the excess marjerin.

Easy Egg Tarts

Egg tart's one of my fav desserts in the morning when i have dim sum. Come to think bout it, its not only during dim sum sessions but also when i visit the bakery! My personal favourite would be the Portugese Egg Tarts. I'll definitely look for the recipe to try it out. 

Since this is my first attempt in bakin egg tarts, i'm gonna start of with the easy egg tarts recipe i came across earlier. 

What you need for these egg tarts are:

Filling
* 2 eggs
* 200ml milk
*1/4 cup castor sugar
*1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Dough
* 80gm butter
* 21/2 cups flour
* 2/3 cup water

You'll need to preheat oven to 160 degrees C and beat all the ingredients listed in the filling.  Next combine butter , flour and water to make the dough.

If you've muffin pans then butter it with a brush. Roll out the dough to approximately 3mm thin. Next, you'll need to cut rounds of dough with an upside-down  cup to fit halfway up the muffin holes. As for me , since i dont have any muffin pans at home, i resorted  to round aluminium foils for my dough to sit in.

Pour the egg mixture through a strainer into each dough- lined up foil/muffin,leavin bout 5mm of rim.  Bake for 15 minutes. Turn up heat to 175 degrees for the lower part of the oven. Bake for another 6 minutes. Since i was using my good old-fashion oven, i baked it for bout 20mins.

The egg tarts turn out pretty but the crust was rather hard, perhaps its due to my own oven or mayb its the way i was doin the dough. I wasnt very happy with how the crusted tasted like but i suppose its aint that bad for a first attempt.

Anyhow, i'm planning to try out some other recipes for the dough. Perhaps i'll try to search for Betty Crocker Pie Crust Mix for the crust the next time around.
                                                              

Kaya - Coconut Egg Jam

Today i was in the mood to get my hands dirty so i was just browsing around to see what's nice to make or cook. So i decided since i dont have all the ingredients i need for egg tarts, why dont i make Kaya instead. My family sure loves kaya, especially my granny.

To make kaya, its really really easy. You'll only need 4 ingredients ;
1) sugar
2) eggs
3) thick coconut milk
4) screwpine leaves aka pandan leaves.

What i did was, in a large bowl, i broke 7 eggs and pour in bout 300gm of sugar and mix it with a mixture at a low speed instead of hand whisking it.

When i was done with the eggs mixture, i cleaned the screwpine leaves and cut it to about 8 pieces in the lenght of 3cms each. Instead of knotting the leaves i chose to cut it for its easier to handle.

Next, i poured the eggs mixture and the screwpine leaves into a non-stick pan and stir it occasionally under a low heat. Once the sugar has dissolved, remove the non-stick pan from heat and pour in bout 250ml of thick coconut milk bit by bit while stirring it. Put back the eggs and coconut milk mixture on low heat and keep stirring for another 5mins then remove from the heat and strain the mixture into a double-boiler pot.

Since i dont have a double-boiler pot, i strained the mixture into a pot and place it in a pan of boiling water. Keep stirring the mixture until it thickens.

Once the mixture is to the thickness you desire, remove from heat and let it cool off before storing it in jam bottle.

For those who loves a darker shade of kaya, you can replace white sugar with brown sugar and caramelized it. If you want your kaya to be in greenish in colour, then add some pandan leaves juice/paste/essence.

The screwpine leaves i had in the egg/sugar mixture was to give the kaya a hint of the aromatic leaves.