Wagashi (和菓子)- Gyūhi

Can you spot the wagashi?

The word "wagashi" may not be a familiar term for many people but for those chinese educated one, the chinese term may looks familiar to them. Wagashi can be easily explained as Traditional Japanese Confectionery. The most common is adzuki bean paste wrapped with mochi skin. If you ever visit the Japanese supermarket, you will realized these colourful wagashi in various flowers shape and you start questioning yourself, is that edible? Why I said so, cause this is too pretty to be eaten! Been asking around for a wagashi course in Singapore and have no luck. My hubby's Japanese colleague was telling me this is something you have to start from apprentice in Japan and to make a good wagashi, it may take up to 10 years. Oops.. okie.. since it sounds so impossible, let me just start with the simplest one with adzuki bean paste. No worry, I don't have 10 years kungfu either, means everyone can make this.

Many years ago, I took up the japanese language lesson in Penang. Straight to the point, I stopped it halfway due to some personal reasons. Kind of regret to be honest, the dream of speaking Japanese when travelling in Japan is failed. Actually I did speak, does it count when I only say "arigatou"? I admit that I like the language, the food and the place. It is the country that I revisited and feel like wanted to do that for 3rd time or so on. Not only that, when I am in Singapore, I like to wander around at Kinokuniya Orchard and looking for my books. I am not those kind who flip all the books but without buying it.. Heheh.. I bought it everytime I visit. Here comes my hubby, " You buy again? Oh.. the house is like a small library now". I always reply him with my cheeky smile, "but I feed u with good food, no?" Some may feel weird, how come not visited those branded shops at Orchard but... Ya, I am not a book worms but I bought alot of recipe and travel books.

The recipe below is adapted from a book called 我愛和果子. It 's in Chinese so I have to translate everything to put on my blog. The ingredients is not easy to get, only in those big Japanese supermarket, If you are making this, be prepare to run a few place before gathered everything.

Recipe for adzuki bean paste:
yield about 450gm

adzuki bean 200gm
caster sugar 150-200gm
water

1. Wash the adzuki beans in the sieve, clean thoroughly
2. Place adzuki beans in the sauce pan on high heat and bring to boil. Water added should be just cover up the beans.
3. Add in cold water once it boiled. Repeat until the skin of the adzuki beans start puffing up.
4. Strain the water from the beans and keep washing under the running tap.
5. Repeat #2, once it boiled, reduce the heat and continue to cook for another 40min to an hour until it soften.
6. Water can add in anytime in between to make sure the water level just cover up the beans.
7. Prepare a bowl of clean water, press the beans using the back of a spatula through a sieve. Make sure the bottom of the sieve touches the water. This is to discard the skin of the adzuki beans.
8. After you done with #7, add large amount of water into the puree and leave it for 5 minutes.
9. Pour the water away and keep the puree, repeat #8.
10. Place the puree in the cheesecloth and squeeze to remove the excess moisture.
11. Heat up 30ml of water with caster sugar in the saucepan, once it boiled, put in the bean paste.
12. Reduce to medium low heat , keep stirring until it become a thick paste. (where the bean paste can hold a shape)
13. Cool down in room temperature before using.

The paste can be wrapped in the cling film and kept in the fridge. After all this long instructions, let me tell u an easiest way to get this. Buy it from a Japanese groceries store. :) This can save up alot of hassle.

The next thing will be the mochi skin to wrap up the adzuki bean.

Recipe for Gyūhi (求肥):
Yield for 10

Japanese Glutinous rice flour (白玉粉) 70gm
water 140ml
caster sugar 100gm
soya bean powder (黄豆粉)
red bean paste 200gm

1.Sieve some soya bean powder on a big plate
2. Divide the adzuki bean paste equally into 20gm each,  roll into ball.
3. Put the rice flour in a microwave proof bowl, add in the water bit by bit followed by caster sugar.
4. Use 600w microwave to heat up for 1 minute and keep stirring until the sugar dissolved.
5. Heat up again for another 3min 30 seconds. Stir for 3 times in between.
6. It has to be a bit translucent at this stage.
7. Place the skin on the plate with the soya bean powder. Divide them into 10 portion.
8. Roll it into ball and press down in the middle.
9. Bring 20gm of adzuki bean paste under the skin and pushing the skin down wrapping up the whole bean paste ball. Roll the Gyuhi into a ball.
10. Place the completed Gyuhi on a tray and sieve the soya bean powder on top .

Some may have wonder if it is the same as the glutinous rice ball (汤圆), I would say they are both using glutinous rice flour. Texture wise, I wouldn't say they are the same, if you are someone who goes for chewiness, Gyuhi is defintely the one, of course you have to be someone who takes red beans.

Brought a few for my hubby's Japanese colleague as an appreciation of translating one Japanase recipe for me. On top of that, I hope I can have a real Japanese to tell me how does it taste compared to what they normally have. The feedback I had is quite favourable. His wife said, it reminds her about her grandma's sweet. Well, I take it as a compliment, if my dessert do make her think about her grandmom's recipe, it's kinda success? :) Anyway, they are asking for more, I am more than happy to make them another box.

Go nuts!



This is the flavour that I will repeat for many times!

 A very nutty flavour of black sesame ice cream. It is a very common dessert in the Japanese restaurant, everyone must be familiar with it. To be honest , not the flavour that I would crave for, champion ice cream to me was actually green tea ice cream. You are right, I am using "was". Ha, this black sesame ice cream successfully won my heart over. But I have to make a note here, this only applicable to my homemade ice cream.

Looking everywhere for the black sesame paste. I have to say the taste of the ice cream is greatly depend on the paste so don't try to save the money. In fact, the cost of this homemade black sesame ice cream isn't very cheap if u compare with other flavour.When I open up the bottle, what I can see is just charcoal black, not sweet, strong nutty flavour, I know I got it. I would prefer the result came out to be darker colour, means I have to increase the amount of the paste, still, I never know if it will be too strong of the nut flavour.

The black sesame paste that I used. (Like!)

 Recipe for the black sesame ice cream:

1 cup of whole milk
2 cups of heavy cream
6 egg yolks
Sugar 70gm
Black sesame paste 70gm
Some black and white sesame for toppings.

Not much difference with my other recipe for ice cream. The only thing is to slowly mix the paste into the milk before you heat it up. Take a look on my green tea ice cream recipe in this blog. It's not as difficult as you think! When you manage to churn your own ice cream, you wouldn't even think about buying one pint from the supermarket!

Lamb Stew

It has been more than a week not update my blog cause I hardly cook any food during these period. Went back to Penang for 8 days, enjoyed mum's cooking, lucky huh. Whole list of food that I want to cook during this trip back to Singapore unfortunately sick like a dead fish at home. Temporary say goodbye to all the good food, looking at the bland noodle soup and the colourful pills and cough syrup..sigh. Few more days, let's see how much I can cook.

This lamb stew was actually cooked 2 weeks ago, due to the recipe left in Singapore, I have no choice but only putting it up now. Not everyone can take the lamb due to the distinctive smell. I do takes lamb, my the only concern is just the heatiness. I cooked this lamb in a French way, simple reason, it's fast. Normal stew may take you 2-3 hours for a lamb stew, but the french way just used up an hour for the stewing process. It should be cooked together with french beans, turnips and small potatoes so called seasonal vegetables in France. Sorry, in Singapore, I only grabbed what I like at Cold Storage. French beans, turnips wasn't there, small potatoes came in a big bag, my the only option is to omit everything, leave the carrots and onions. This lamb stew doesn't taste strong gamey smell, I don't guarantee yours will be the same as mine. :) What I can assure you is the tenderness of the lamb and the moment you open the oven door, you will start slavering. Why need to spend so much for a lamb stew at the fine dining restaurant when you can cook it yourself while enjoying a glass of red wine at home. This is the real magic of cooking!

Recipe for Lamb Stew ( 2 person):

Boneless lamb shoulder or lamb legs 500gm ( cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes)
One big onion (cut into small cubes)
Small carrots 60gm (cut into small cubes)
One tomato (cut into small cubes)
2 clove of garlics
Tomato paste 3 Tbsp
Flour 20gm
Water 500ml
Butter 30gm
A stalk of rosemary
A stalk of thyme
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
Extra small carrots 40gm

Trim the excess fat from the lamb. Sprinkle the lamb cubes with pepper and salt and brown it on the pan. Drain well. 

Remove the oil from the pan and put in the 30gm butter. Saute the carrots and onion until fragrant. Continue to stir with flour. Put the lamb back into the pan followed by the chopped tomatoes and tomato paste. Pour the water to be slightly cover the lamb and bring to boil, skim off any scums that arise on the top. Season with salt and pepper. Herbs and garlic can be go in by now.

Transfer the lamb into oven safe casserole. Keep it in the oven with lid on at 180-200 degrees for about an hour. Remove the lamb aside and sieve the gravy. Cook the gravy and the lamb for another 10 min.

While the lamb is in the oven, boil the extra small carrots in the salted water, simmer until tender. Drain well and put them in the casserole together with the lamb for the last 10 minutes.

*Potatoes, turnips, green peas can be some other good choice to go with this lamb recipe.

Bon Appétit!

Cream Puff



Puffing up





 It was more than that before I take the photo.. They look too gorgeous to me, can you see they are winking at me? That's the reason I can't resist the seduction and pop few of them into my mouth. :D I like to make a petite cream puff, nice and cute, just need one bite and that's it. Good quality of cream is a must for cream puff, need to be silky smooth, rich and creamy enough BUT not too sweet. I would say puff is too easy to prepare, one of the easiest pastry apart from scones (I think). You will get so excited when you see them puffing up. Not just limited to round shape, how about a love shape for your loved one today?

Recipe for choux puff (14 round shaped)

Water 100cc
Butter 45gm
A pinch of salt
Low gluten flour 60gm
Eggs 2

Optional:
Ground almond
Caster sugar

Heat the water, butter and salt in the pot until it boiled. Turn of the heat and pour the flour into the mixture and start to stir them by using spatula until it becomes a dough.

Turn on minumum heat and cook the dough. This is to help to dry up the dough a bit. Cook until you can see a thin layer forms on the pot. It may takes about 1 to 2 min time. Remove the pot from heat and add in the eggs. If you want to know if the batter is ready, try to scoop by using spatula, when the batter flows down, it should be slowly forming a V shape. If it is too hard to flow down, no harm to add extra egg mixture.
*For this recipe, so far I never have to do so.

Use a piping bag to pipe out the round shaped on a non stick baking paper. Get some egg yolk and brush it on top of the puff. It's optional to put 1/8 tsp of sugar and 1/8 ground almond onto the puff. Spray some water on the puffs before they go in the oven.

Bake them at 200 degrees for around 30 min

Recipe for custard cream:

One egg yolk
Milk 200gm
Cream 80gm
Cornstarch 16gm
A pinch of salt
1/8 tsp of vanilla essence
Sugar 60gm
Butter 30gm

Whisk the egg yolk and cornstarch until well combined with no lumps. Heat up the salt, milk, cream and sugar until the sugar melted, it doesn't need to be boiled at this point.

Slowly pour the milk mixture into the egg mixture and stir vigorously. Put them back to the pot and continue to cook, avoid maximum heat. Stir well at this stage as it is very easily to get burnt. Cook until the right consistency (thicker) and small bubbles appear. Remove from heat and butter can be added in followed by vanilla essence.

* The custard will get thicker after you leave in the fridge.

To pipe the cream, simply cut of the top part of the puff and pipe in the cream.

Chicken and Crispy Roast Pork With Rice

I hope you can smell how fragrant is the rice, have a bite of the crunchy roast pork, and feel the tenderness of the chicken.. No worry, either you can have it somewhere for tomorrow lunch or cook it by following my attached recipe. See, I am not a mean person. :D
Asked my hubby today what he wants for dinner and he answers me"anything, anything fast and easy" After 5 seconds... "how about chicken rice?" Puzzled.. how can a chicken rice meal be easy? Anyway, I still came up with this for him, more than what he asked for.. plus the crispy roast pork. Actually I was the one who craved for the roast pork...

There is total 3 parts of this recipe..A. chicken B. chicken rice C. crispy roast pork

Recipe for the Chicken:

One whole chicken
An inch of ginger (sliced)
Few stalks of scallions
Salt to rub the chicken

First, rub the salt on the chicken and put it in the boiling water with the rest of the ingredients. Boil for 5 minutes and turn off the fire. Keep the chicken in the pot for 45 min and turn on the fire again and check if it's cooked. ( time may varied due to the size of the chicken) Submerge the chicken into the icy cold water for 10 min.

Keep the stock aside.

Recipe for the Chicken Rice for 2 person

Uncooked rice
Chicken Stock
Half inches of ginger (sliced)
A tsp of garlic
A tsp of shallots
3 Tbsp of butter
1/4 tsp of chicken stock powder
1/2 tsp of salt

Saute the shallots and garlic until fragant. Instead of normal water, use the chicken stock to cook the rice. Simply put all the ingredients into the rice cooker and follow the manual instructions.



Recipe for the Crispy Roast Pork for 2 person

Pork belly 300gm
Salt 10gm
Sugar 5gm
Small amount of bicarbonate of soda
Soya sauce 10 cc
Five spice powder 5gm
oil
Coarse salt

Preheat the oven. Dry the pork belly in the oven at 200 degrees for 5 min.

Mix the salt, sugar, soya sauce and five spice powder together and rub on the pork, avoid the skin area.

Cut the slit in between the flesh, but not cutting through. This is for easy marination process.

Poke as much holes as you can on the pork skin. This is the crucial part to determine the crunchy layer of the skin. Rub the skin with a small amount of soda. Keep the pork on the plate where the flesh is facing down touching the marinate sauce, put in the fridge for at least 2 hours

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Wrap the pork with alluminium foil and leave out the skin. Cover the skin with coarse salt, bake for 20 min. You should be seeing some scorching part on the skin by now.

Remove the coarse salt from the skin. Apply a layer of oil on top of the skin and continue to bake at 200 degrees for 15 min or until it's completely turn crispy on the skin.

Last thing on the list, season the chicken stock with salt and pepper. Garnish the rice with some spring onion. Chicken, roast pork, rice with a bowl of chicken soup, done! Hmm.. I can smell chicken rice again..

Chocolate . Indulgence

Chocolate never failed to please me. Well, I hardly see anyone who doesn't take chocolate, white chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, at least one? Made a chocolate mousse cake to celebrate my hubby's birthday few months back, a 7inch cake finished by us the next day, have to emphasize, only in two sessions! He told me" I never have so much in my life". Haha... I wanted to tell him, there are more for you to eat. White chocolate is his most favourite, he likes everything sweeeet.. anything to do with coconut milk, the "lemak" kind of food. This dessert is specially make for him but.. I finished two tarts up to now. This white chocolate mousse has no exception with any kind of mousse which is having the "melt-in-mouth" feel. The silky texture of the mousse... muakss.. simply irresistible! Wonder if he is looking at this post, come back early today before the tarts gone. Let me try the dark chocolate mousse tart for the next round, all mine!

Lemon Tart

I normally go for sweet and sour combination for my dessert. Nothing much, just my own preference. I don't have a sweet tooth, that's including my own-baked desserts. Luckily I have someone at home who willing to sweep all my food without complaining! This is a simple almond tart shell with the lemon curd filling, decorate with pistachios, gold flakes and dragees. Looks like the egg tart though, only the colour the same. It definately tastes better after leave in the fridge for awhile.

Recipe for the Almond Tart Shell (12 tarts on 6cm mould)
Butter 180gm
Icing sugar 100gm
Eggs 3
Plain Flour 300gm
Ground Almound 70gm
A pinch of salt

Cream the butter and the sugar and salt until pale and yellow. Add in the eggs one by one until well combined. Add the flour slowly at low speed until it forms a dough. Wrap them in a cling film and chill for at least 30 min before we start to work on it.

Preheat the oven at 170degrees, press the dough into the tart mould and layer with small baking paper topped with some weight like beans. Bake take tart for 30 min or until golden brown. Removed from oven, cooled completely before add in the filling.

Lemon Curd:

Lemon juice 150cc
4 eggs
Sugar 165gm
Butter 165gm
Gelatine leaves 5gm (Bloom them in cold water)
A tsp of lemon zest

Heat the lemon juice and lemon zest in a pot. Mix the eggs and sugar in another pot. Pour the hot lemon juice into the eggs mixture, remember to stir while you pouring.

Cook the mixture until it turns thicker. Cut the butter into small pieces and whisk them into the mixture followed by the gelatine leaves. As the temperature goes down, the curd will turn thicker.