Zha Jiang Mian ??? - Fried sauce noodles

Zha Jiang Mian ??? is fried sauce noodles, I called it Chinese spag bog. These noodles are very popular in most parts of Northern China, especially Beijing.Koreans are also fan of zha jiang noodles, similar name called jajangmyeon. The sauce Korean used is not the same as Chinese, similar flavour but made with black beans called chungjang.Chinese zha jiang sauce is dark brown, salty, sweet and

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Lets Squash it

Buttercup Squash Bread

1 pkg (1/4 oz.) active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
2 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 to 1 tsp. caraway seeds
1 cup buttercup squash, cooked and mashed
3 cup all-purpose flour

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add molasses, salt,
caraway, squash and 2 C. flour; mix well. Add enough remaining flour
to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth
and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once
to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down then shape into a loaf. Place in a
greased 9" x 5" x 3" loaf pan. Cover and let rise until doubled,
about 45 minutes. Bake at 400 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until
golden brown. Remove from pan to cool on a wire rack. From: Mignonne
Yield: 1 loaf

Calabacitas (Skillet Squash)

5 cubed small summer squash
1 diced large onion
2 roasted peeled green chiles
or
1 small can diced green chile
1 tablespoon shortening or oil
3/4 cup shredded longhorn cheese

Saute onion in shortening or oil until soft. Add squash and stir until
almost tender. Add chiles; simmer briefly. Sprinkle on cheese and stir
until melted. From: Dove
Yield: 5 servings

Abenaki Squash Soup

4 strips smoked bacon, sliced very thin
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
2 medium onions, peeled and diced
3 quarts chicken stock (homemade)
4 big potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 acorn squash, peeled and cubed
1 tbs. sugar
pinch salt
pinch hot pepper
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
chopped parsley (if you have it on; hand)

In large saucepan, slowly render bacon until crisp. Add carrots, onions.
Cook until vegetables are soft. Add chicken stock and simmer for 90
minutes.Add potatoes, squash, salt, and pepper. Simmer 40 minutes, then mush or
puree. Add lime juice. Check seasonings and adjust to taste. Serve with
chopped parsley, if you have it on hand.

Anasazi-Squash Stew With Basil And Serrano

1 cup anasazi beans, rinsed and sorted fo; r debris
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 pounds butternut squash, peeled and cut in; to 1-in. cubes
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
6 whole star anise
6 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 piece ginger (2 in.), peeled and grated
2 pcs serrano chiles, halved, seeded, and; thinly sliced
12 pcs large fresh basil leaves, chopped

This fragrant, buttery stew is hearty enough to work as a vegetarian
main dish. Serve with a green salad and fry bread (Indian flatbread) Prep
and Cook Time: 45 minutes. Notes: If you can't find
serrano chiles, substitute 2 fresh jalape�os. You can also use less
common varieties of basil, such as Thai or lemon (double the number of
leaves in the recipe if they're very small).
1. In a large pot, bring beans, turmeric, and 4 cups water to a
boil. Lower heat to a simmer, partially cover, and cook until beans soft.
2. Add squash, salt, sugar, and star anise. Bring to a boil, lower heat
to a simmer, and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until squash
is tender, about 15 minutes.
3. In a small frying pan, melt butter. When melted butter stops foaming
on top, turn heat to high, add cumin seeds, and cook, stirring, until
browned and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add ginger and chiles and cook,
stirring constantly, another 2 minutes. Add basil. Stir to combine and
cook until basil is wilted, about 30 seconds.
4. Serve stew hot, with the spiced butter poured over each serving. Or
stir all the spiced butter into the pot of stew before serving.
Yield: makes 4 serving

Fried Cherokee Squash Bread

2 summer squash, diced
water
1 c corn meal
1/4 c buttermilk
1 pcs egg

Cook squash in water until soft; leave 3/4 c. water in pot. Combine other
ingredients with squash and water; mix together. Fry in hot oil until
golden brown.

Yield: makes 1 batch.

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Stuff I've made these few days

Red Bean Spiral Pau

Made these Red Bean Spiral Pau while at 1am, while waiting for Lyanne to sleep.... Finished at 4am, and she's finally sound asleep.











Cekodok
An aunt gave us Pisang Rastali, a type of local banana of which the skins turns black upon ripening. Doesn't look appetizing when the skin is black. So, made these into cekodok.
And this time, I coated them in sugar like doughnuts
Well, basically, they do taste like banana doughnuts.

There are other stuff too..but they are new recipes not in this blog, so, I'd post them up later.

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Marble Cheesecake ??????

This is adapted from Kraft's site, Classic Cheesecake.
Made it into a marble cheesecake rather than a plain one.

The outcome? So so la... I prefer Alex Goh's marble cheesecake.

Being an asian.. I like things to be soft and fluffy, so a dense cheesecake is just not for my tastebuds. If u like it dense, u'll like this one. It's ok..but not very nice, in my opinion. Maybe due to the density.

Rather easy to make and bake. My first uncracked cheesecake!



Ingredients: I used 2 6 inch foil pans. Smaller pans means shorter baking time.

150 gm digestive biscuit (finely crushed)
60 gm butter, melted

Mix the above ingredients and press onto base of pan.
Bake in 160C for 10 minutes. Leave to cool.

500gm cream cheese, room temperature
100gm sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
1 heaped teaspoon quality cocoa powder
2 Tbsp boiling water

1. Cream the cream cheese until smooth.
2. Add in sugar and continue to beat for a minute.
3. Add in vanilla, mix well.
4. Put in eggs, one by one. Beating well after each addition. This is the cheese mixture
5. Mix cocoa powder with boiling water until smooth.
6. Put in 6 Tablespoons of cheese mixture into cocoa powder to make choc cheese mixture.
7. Put in 4 Tablespoons of cheese mixture into each prepared pan. Spread and level mixture
8. Spoon 2 Tablespoon of choc cheese mixture onto each cheese mixture. Drizzling it all over.
9. Top with remaining cheese mixture, trying to cover up the choc cheese mixture.
10. Lastly drizzle the remaining choc cheese mixture onto the 2nd cheese mixture layer.
11. Use a tooth pick or whatever with a pointy end to draw the mixture in whichever direction u like.
12. Bake in water bath, 160C 10 minutes, 140C for 30 minutes.
13. Leave to cool in closed oven for an hour.
14. Remove from oven and when completely cooled, chill in fridge for 4 hours or overnight before cutting.

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Native Meat Dry Run

Albuquerque Pueblo Dry Rub

1 tablespoon coriander seeds (or 2 teaspoons ground coriander)

1 tablespoon cumin seeds (or 2 teaspoons groundcumin)

6 tablespoons chili powder

1 tablespoon onion powder

2 teaspoons garlic powder

2 teaspoon azafran powder

2 teaspoons dried mexican oregano

1 teaspoon juniper berries ground

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoons black peppercorns (or 1 teaspoon ground pepper)

This makes enough dry rub to flavor about 3 pounds of meat, game, fish, or

poultry. We suggest starting with whole spices for the best flavor, but you

can always substitute ground spices if you prefer.

1. Heat a small saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the coriander and

cumin seeds and toast, swirling the pan constantly, until the seeds give

off a rich aroma, about 1 minute. Immediately transfer the seeds to a cool

plate and allow to cool for a few minutes.

2. Transfer the seeds to a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder. Add the

chili powder, onion and garlic powder, oregano, salt, and pepper. Grind the

spices to an even texture. The rub is ready to use now, or you can

transfer it to a jar, cover it tightly, and keep it in a cool, dry cupboard

or pantry for up to 1 month.

Yield: makes 1/2 cup

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Ma Po Tofu ????

Lyanne's almost 8 weeks.. by this Wednesday she'll be. She's following her sister's footsteps by sucking on her thumb! Haih! Why don't they ever take on the pacifier instead?? I'd prefer them to be on the pacifier rather than the thumb, and the right thumb to be exact. Lyanne can smile now, when we talk to her, she'll react by smiling. Meanwhile Lydia is trying to carry her.. she can't of course! When we hold Lyanne in our arms, she'll try to put her arms under her, as if she's carrying her. It's cute.

Ma Po Tofu. After reading on the internet, I found that the origin of this dish came from a granny who is a leper. Hence the name, Leper Granny Tofu.

This is my version. A little too dark, due to my aged bean paste.. I haven�t been using the bean paste for quite some time, and once the bottle�s opened, it starts to age and darken. And it�s not that easy to find hot bean paste in Malaysia, so I combine chili paste and bean paste to make up for it.
Not fiery hot, sorry to disappoint chili fans.

250 soft tofu, cubed
� cup minced pork /chicken
1 shallot, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
� Tbsp fine bean paste (tau cheong)
1 tsp ground chili paste (cili giling, in Malay)
2 Tbsp chili sauce ( Maggi, Kimball or Heinz type)
� tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 cup water mixed with 1 tsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp oil

1. Heat wok on medium and put in oil. Saute chopped garlic and shallot until fragrant.
2. Add in bean paste and chili paste, stir until fragrant.
3. Put in minced pork. Stir until pork is cooked.
4. Put in cornstarch mixture, sesame oil, chili sauce, salt and sugar to taste.
5. When gravy has thickened, put in cubed tofu and simmer for another half minute.
6. Dish up and serve. Sprinkle on some chopped green onions for decoration.

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UFO Bun ????

Whenever I make breads from whatever overseas site, I always have to reduce the water content by 10-15%. If not the dough will not be pliable� very sticky and can�t be formed. Maybe it�s due to the type of bread flour or the humidity in Malaysia.. I dunno..but reducing the water a little bit sure make things better

The site shows that this bun has filling� but I can�t seem to find out what it is. So, I omitted it. Hub said, the topping itself is tasty enough, no need to add in filling. He likes it.. he likes it.. kekekeke


Bun (A)
160 gm bread flour
40 gm low protein flour
1 tsp yeast
� tsp salt
1 Tbsp milk powder
40gm sugar
30gm egg
90gm water (I used 80gm only, add in by the teaspoon if u can still handle it)
30gm butter

Topping: (B)
50gm egg
40gm sugar
1 drop vanilla essence
30gm low protein flour
� tsp baking powder
10gm ground almond
45gm melted butter

Method:
1. Mix everything in (A) together except butter. Knead until dough is smooth and stretchy. (took me half hour by hand, I don't have a bread machine). Knead in butter until well incorporated.
2. Cover and leave to proof until double in size.
3. Punch down dough and divide into 6 portions. Roll each portion into a ball and place on a piece of baking paper, about 5 inch diameter.
4. Let proof until double again.
5. For topping, melt butter and mix with ground almonds.
6. Beat eggs with sugar until sugar dissolves. Add in vanilla essence.
7. Sift flour with baking powder.
8. Combine (5), (6) and (7).
9. Chill until consistency turns thick.
10. When dough balls have doubled, pipe topping starting from the centre of dough, in spiral pattern until it almost covers the top of bun. When baked, the topping batter will later melt down the sides.
11. Bake in 200C preheated oven for 15 minutes.



(From what u can see of my buns, they are a bit burnt, I did 200C for 7 minutes, and they browned, so I quickly turned down to 170C for another 10 minutes, but yet.. **sigh** still brown, very brown. The next time around, I�ll go 180C for 15-20 minutes, it depends on your oven)





Source: http://www001.upp.so-net.ne.jp/e-pan/recipe/recipe.htm

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