Japanese Cotton Cheesecake Recipe (Improved version)

Looking for a light and fluffy cheesecake this is the recipe you'll love! Keeper as it is we'll bake this again one day. (っ◔◡◔)っ ♥


Was highlighted by a friend that recipes should advice what pan size is used, with that from today onwards we're adding this collumn to our cake/ muffin/ cupcake recipes.
Square Pan of 9" x 9" sides x 2" height
and another
Round Pan of 5" diameter x 1.5" height

Cream Cheese Mix Ingredients
50g Butter
250g Cream Cheese
100ml Fresh Milk
60g Top Flour (sifted)
20g Corn Flour (sifted)
1/4 teaspoon Salt
6 Egg Yolks
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Lemon Zest (Optional)

Meringue Ingredients
140g Fine Granulated Sugar
6 Egg Whites

Water Bath
Oven Tray
500ml Cold Water
300ml Cold Water

1. Melt Cream Cheese, Butter and Fresh Milk over a double boiler. Whisk it occasionally to help the texture become till silky smooth.
2. Let the warm Cream Cheese Mix cool for 10mins.
3. Fold in Salt, Vanilla Extract, Lemon Zest and Egg yolks. Follow by Flour and Cornflour. Set aside.
4. Preheat the oven at 250°C. Prepare the silicon pans by greasing it or line the bottom and sides of the baking pan with greaseproof baking paper or parchment paper.
5. In another whisking bowl, whisk Egg whites until foamy then add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.
Meaning of Soft Peak - When you turn your whisk upside down, the peaks are just starting to hold. They're soft and melt back into themselves after a second. More about Meringue Stage explained here.
6. Add the Meringue to the Cream Cheese Mix and gently fold until well combine.
7. Pour the Pour the cake batter into your baking pans.
8. Place the Baking Pans on the tray and pour 500ml Cold water into the tray. This is call the Cold Water Bath technique.
9. Bake cheesecake at 230°C in a water bath for 10 mins.
10. Lower the tempreture to 150°C and bake for 30mins then add 300ml of Cold Water to the tray and bake for another 30mins or until set and golden brown. Alternatively, test using a wooden skewer. Insert in the centre of the cake. It should come out fairly clean.
10. Leave to cool in oven with door ajar for about an hour. Reason is sudden drastic changes in the temperature may cause the cake to cool too quickly and collapse.
11. Unmould the cake sand place on a wire rack to cool.
12. Chill overnight before serving.


Personal Tips:
- Dip the knife in hot water before cutting for clean slices.
- Do not need to over turn the Cheesecake to cool
- Tips from Victoria's blog for painting the cake: 1 tsp of dark cocoa powder was added to 2 tsp of cake batter for decorating purposes. Adjust this accordingly to the size of the image you like to paint.


Serving Suggestions:
- Before Serving, dust it with icing sugar to give it a dreamy look!
- Or... You can serve it with Blueberry Compote Recipe available here.



Click here for our blog page Baking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~

Fish Dictionary - Building a List from my Cooking Journey

Keeping this to keep my memory clear and for all of you out there whom also want to learn about the different type of Fish out there that we consume from some of the experts out there. If the information is incorrect please do leave a comment below.

(>‿◠)✌
English Name: Kao Pomfret (Ranking 1st in Pomfret World)
Chinese Name: 斗大鲳 Dao Dai Chong
Malay Name: Ikan Bawal Selatan
Exterior: It has grey n shining layer on the skin.
Recipes:

1. Steamed Pomfret Fish Restaurant 清蒸 Style Recipe

Photo Credit to M25


(҂⌣̀_⌣́)ᕤ
English Name: White Pomfret (Ranking 2nd in Pomfret World)
Chinese Name: 白鲳
Malay Name: Ikan Bawal Putih
Recipes:

1. Steamed Pomfret Fish Restaurant 清蒸 Style Recipe

Photo Credit to Ocean Pacific Cold Storage

(>‿◠)✌
English Name: Black Pomfret (Ranking 3rd in Pomfret World)
Chinese Name: 黑鲳
Malay Name: Ikan Bawal Hitam
Taste: good for deep fry n coated with sambal
Recipes that can be used:

1. Sweet & Sour Fish Recipe
2. Fried Fish with Soya Sauce and Shallots

Photo Credit to An Raj Fish Product Industries Ltd


(҂⌣̀_⌣́)ᕤ
English Name: Cod
Chinese Name: 鳕鱼
Malay Name: Kod

1. Steamed Pomfret Fish Restaurant 清蒸 Style Recipe
2. Uber Delicious Sous Vide Citrus Soy Fish
3. Baked Fish on top of Broccoli and Shiitake Mushroom
4. Delicious Miso Crusted Fillets
5. Fried Fish with Soya Sauce and Shallots

Photo Credit to Fishdelish


(>‿◠)✌
English Name: Seven Star Garoupa/Grouper
Chinese Name: 七星石斑
Malay Name: Ikan Kerapu

1. Steamed Pomfret Fish Restaurant 清蒸 Style Recipe
2. Sweet & Sour Fish Recipe
3. Fried Fish with Soya Sauce and Shallots

(>‿◠)✌
English Name: Mouse Garoupa/Grouper
Chinese Name: 老鼠石斑
Malay Name: Ikan Kerapu

1. Steamed Pomfret Fish Restaurant 清蒸 Style Recipe
2. Sweet & Sour Fish Recipe
3. Fried Fish with Soya Sauce and Shallots

Photo Credit to Malaysian Grouper Fishes


(҂⌣̀_⌣́)ᕤ
English Name: Salmon
Chinese Name: 三文鱼

1. Uber Delicious Sous Vide Citrus Soy Fish
2. Baked Fish on top of Broccoli and Shiitake Mushroom
3. Delicious Miso Crusted Fillets
4. Home Cured 'smoked' Salmon 'gravlax' style

Photo Credit to The Meat House Blog


(>‿◠)✌
English Name: Threadfin / Indian Salmon
Malay Name: Ikan Kurau
Chinese Name: 午鱼
Hokkien Name: Ngoh Hee
Teochews: Ngou Herh

1. Sweet & Sour Fish Recipe
2. Fried Fish with Soya Sauce and Shallots

Photo Credit to Chinese Cooking Recipe.net


(҂⌣̀_⌣́)ᕤ
English Name: Spanish Mackerel/Seer Fish
Malay Name: Ikan Tenggiri Batang

1. Sweet & Sour Fish Recipe
   
2. Fried Fish with Soya Sauce and Shallots



3. Oven Broil Fish

Photo Credit to Dreams Time


(҂⌣̀_⌣́)ᕤ
English Name: Seabass
Chinese Name: 鲈鱼
Malay Name: Ikan Siakap

1. Sweet & Sour Fish Recipe
2. Oven Broil Fish
3. Fried Fish with Soya Sauce and Shallots

Photo Credit to Fish Fanatics


(҂⌣̀_⌣́)ᕤ
Malay Name: Kampung Fish
Chinese Name: 甘望鱼
Teochews Name: Kammong Fish
Taste: The meat is very sweet. Good for making assam laksa.

1. Oven Broil Fish
2. Fried Fish with Soya Sauce and Shallots

Photo Credit to Puca Signature's Blog


(>‿◠)✌
English Name: Tuna
Chinese Name: 金枪鱼
Malay Name: Ikan Kayu
Photo Credit to Aqua Best


(>‿◠)✌
English Name: Stingray/Skate/Skate Wings
Chinese Name: 黄貂鱼
Malay Name: Ikan Pari

1. Oven Broil Fish

Photo Credit to Chef Resources


(>‿◠)✌
English Name: Sardine
Chinese Name: 沙丁鱼
Malay Name: Ikan Selayang/Tamban

1. Oven Broil Fish

Photo Credit to Kyoto Foodie


(>‿◠)✌
English Name: Yellowtail Snapper/Yellow Streaked Snapper
Chinese Name: 黄尾鲷鱼
Malay Name: Ikan Jenahak Jalur Kuning

1. Steamed Pomfret Fish Restaurant 清蒸 Style Recipe
2. Sweet & Sour Fish Recipe
3. Fried Fish with Soya Sauce and Shallots

Photo Credit to Ratemy Fish


(>‿◠)✌
English Name: Red Snapper
Chinese Name: 红鲷鱼
Malay Name: Ikan Merah

1. Steamed Pomfret Fish Restaurant 清蒸 Style Recipe
2. Sweet & Sour Fish Recipe
3. Fried Fish with Soya Sauce and Shallots

Photo Credit to Vin Sullivan

(>‿◠)✌
English Name: Halibut
Chinese Name: 大比目鱼
Malay Name: Ikan Halibut

1. Steamed Pomfret Fish Restaurant 清蒸 Style Recipe
2. Baked Fish on top of Broccoli and Shiitake Mushroom

Photo Credit to Bon Vivant


We'll be adding more as we learn!

Click here for our blog page Cooking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~

Steam Broccoli and Shiitake Mushroom Recipe

It's a myth or it might be scientifically proven thatsteam vege will retain all the nutritional value. So, here we are trying out steam vegetables. It's tricky to not over steam if not it'll be too soft and turn yellowish green.


Ingredients
1 Broccoli (cut to bite size, stem slice thinly.)
4 cloves of Garclic (thinly sliced)
4 big Fresh Shiitake Mushroom or 6-8 small Fresh Shiitake Mushroom

Arrange broccoli, sprinkle the Garlick and shiitake mushrooms in a steaming plate and put in the steamer to steam for no longer then 15mins.

Sauce Ingredients
1 tablespoon Oyster Sauce
1 tablespoon Soy Sauce
1 teaspoon Sesame Oil
Cornstarch Slurry (Stir up 1 tsp Cornflour + 1/2 cup Water)
pepper to taste

Place Oyster Sauce, Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil in a sauce pan when it start bubbling add in the Cornstarch Slurry and let it simmer not forgetting to occasionally stirring it. Off the fire when it is slightly thicken.

When the Brocolli and Shiitake Mushroom are done steaming, pour the sauce over and serve!

Enjoy~!!!

Click here for our blog page Cooking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~

Blueberry Compote / Jam Recipe

Ingredients
375g washed Fresh Blueberries
2 tablespoons Orange Juice
100g Sugar
1 Orange Zest
Cornstarch Slurry (Stir up 1 tablespoon of Cornstarch + 60ml Water)
1 Vanilla Extract


1. Put in Blueberries, Orange Juice, Sugar, Orange Zest in a small sauce pot.
2. Gently stir on low fire until the blueberries breakdown and mixture starts to bubble.


3. Add in the Cornstarch Slurry and continue to gentle stirring until it is integrated into the blueberry sauce and the mixture begins to thicken.
4. Turn off the heat and mix in the Vanilla Extract.
5. Let it cool and pour in to a air tight container then store in the fridge.

This can be store up to 1 week.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Below are my creations hopefully it'll inspire you. Below are the recipes we've used this delicious blueberry compote with. Hope you all will love this recipe.

Recipe ( ⌣́,⌣̀)\(^◡^ ) for Japanese Cotton Cheesecake served with Blueberry Compote

Recipe for Lemon Poppy Seed/ Chai Seed Muffin with Blueberry Compote


Click here for our blog page Baking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~

Steamed White Pomfret Fish Restaurant Style/清蒸 Recipe

Weekend is here!!! Was lucky there was this beautiful fish at the market fish stall this morning. Been told by my friends in office to steam only fresh fish from market. So I did try it out today and it is awesome!


Ingredients:::
300g-400g White Pomfret

Sauce Ingredients:
2 tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
2 tablespoons Rice Wine
1/4 Sugar
Dash of white pepper powder
Drizzle of Shallot Oil

Garnish Ingredients:
Ginger, garlic & chili strips for garnishing depending what is in your fridge! =P

1. Clean, gently rinse and Pat dry with kitchen towel White Pomfret.
2. Measure and mix all the Light Soy Sauce, Rice Wine, Sesame Oil, Sugar, White Pepper. Keep stirring until the sugar melt.
3. Pour the sauce mixture all over the fish and steam for 12-15mins.
5. Place the garnishes on top of the Cod Fish, drizzle some Shallot Oil. This dish is spot on when it's served when just out of the steamer.


Click here for our blog page Cooking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~

In search of the Perfect Steak™ - Semi Frozen Steak Method.

The darling and I are big steak lovers. Or perhaps more accurately, I'm the big steak lover, and she has to come along for the ride. We've come a long way since our first home-cooked steak blogpost three years ago - progressing from el-cheapo grill pan to Sous Vide - and now we've tried what might be our favorite method thus far, courtesy of Modernist Cuisine: The Frozen Steak!


So medium rare. Much juicy. Yums!
The traditional way of cooking a steak has huge drawbacks. In order to get a nice crust you have to cook fast and hot. But because steak cooks from the outside in, by the time the middle is at your preferred temperature, the outer layers have become a grey shade of dry, well done meat.


Image courtesy of Colin McNulty
The solution, then ... is to freeze your steak before searing. Start off with a good piece of meat - like this beautiful $76.90/kg Wagyu Striploin - and plop it uncovered in the freezer on some parchment paper for about 30 minutes. You can see in the photo below that we used kitchen towels: Not a good idea as the steak's juices may saturate the towel and make it hard to remove.


From there just use your favorite searing method to get the maillard reaction going. Blowtorch'ing is the most convenient and fuss-free method but we still prefer oil in a smoking hot skillet. You'll note that we've used quite a lot of oil - this allows a greater surface area of the steak to get scorched by the oil since it's hard and may not conform to the flat pan all that well.


Once both sides are seared nicely we stuff a probe in the middle of the meat and bake in the oven at 70°C, at our chosen target temperature of 55°C (sort of in between Rare and Medium Rare). You can decide what temperature you want, of course! Rare starts at about 52°C, and Medium Well is at about 65°C. Any higher and honestly you might as well not bother eating steak.


Now the huge drawback for this method is controlling the cooking time. it takes anywhere from 30-50 minutes to reach a 55°C internal temperature, which is fine if your diners aren't fussy about waiting. But if you've got a hungry couple waiting at the dinner table and the thermo only reads 45°C ... well you get the idea :)


That yellow froth is milk solids from the melted butter
Now that your steak's ready you can garnish, season and serve - no resting necessary! For today we just melted a little butter and poured it over the top, with some salt and pepper to taste. Re-visiting this cross-section photo we can see there is a very minimal grey band of well done meat - 90% or more of the steak is perfect and just the way we like it. Juicy, tender, delicious!


So there you have our new favorite steak cooking method. We prefer this over sous vide because with a very cold steak you can actually put more heat on the sear to get a proper crust without worrying about the insides overcooking. We've also felt (subjectively) in the past that sometimes sous vide steaks turned out dry - which other blogger home chefs are noticing as well. Having said that, if we were planning a dinner party we would still go with sous vide because of the huge time window for serving the steaks to the guests.

Bon Appétit!

Kung Pao Chicken recipe

Lovely quick, flavorful and easy stir-fry.


Marination Ingredients
2 cubed Boneless Thigh Chicken
0.5 tablespoon Corn Starch
0.5 tablespoon Soy Sauce
0.5 tablespoon Hua Diao Jiu
0.5 tablespoon Dark Soy Sauce
1 teaspoon of Sugar

Marinate the chicken with all the above ingredients for at least 30mins over the counter.

Other Ingredients
2 tablespoons of Vegetable Oil
10 whole Dry Chilli (Mild) - Halfed & Pre-soaked until soft.
1 whole sliced Yellow Onion
4 cloves of Garlic
3 inches Old Ginger
Hand full of Spring Onion
Salt & Pepper to taste


1. Heat Vegetable Oil in wok.
2. Add in Dry Chilli and stir fry until fragrant.
3. Next add in Yellow Onions and stir fry until they are slightly caramelize.
4. Add in Ginger and Garlic and stir fry until fragrant.
5. Pour in the Marinated Chicken and the sauce and stir fry until the meat is cooked.
6. Salt & Pepper to taste. Off the fire, add in the Spring Onion, give it a toss and serve hot.


Enjoy~!!!

Click here for our blog page Cooking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~