Coffee-Nutella Marbled Hot Milk Cake

Ingredients:

110 g butter
1 cup milk
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups cake flour
2 tbsp corn flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp instant or soluble coffee powder (I used soluble orzo)
2 tbsp nutella jam

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 °C.

Lightly grease a chiffon cake pan ( 6 inches in diameter), dust bottom and side of pan with bread crumbs (or flour) and tapping out excess; set aside.

Add butter to milk and heat to boil, remove from heat and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk egg and sugar till pale, thick and glossy.

Add-in flours, salt and baking powder, whisk thoroughly.

Pour-in the warm milk and stir to incorporate fully.

Divide batter into 2 portions.

Combine 1 portion with coffee powder and nutella.

Alternate the two batters topping and layering till finish.

Bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of cake comes out clean.

Remove cake from oven, let cake cool in pan for at least 10 minutes (allow cake to shrink from cake pan).

Run a thin flexible knife or spatula around the pan to loosen the cake, invert cake onto a plate.

Dust with powdered sugar (optional) and serve.

Flour Tortillas

Ingredients:

3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup corn flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder (optional)
1/8 cup lard/vegetable shortening
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup warm water

Method:

In a bowl, combine flours, salt and baking powder.

Cut-in lard and mix with hand till the mixture resembles meal.

Drizzle-in oil and water, mix to form dough.

On a lightly floured surface, knead dough till smooth and elastic with floured hand.

Form dough into a ball and set aside to rest for 1 hour covered with plastic wrapper.

Divide dough into 3 portions.

Over a lightly floured surface, flatten dough balls and roll out each thin to about 18 cm in diameter and 2 mm in thickness with floured rolling pin.

Lightly greased a hot non-stick skillet with oiled paper towel.

Cook tortilla once at a time till bubble, puff and bottom with brown spots.

Flip it over and cook the other side in the same way.

Transfer tortilla to a kitchen towel, stack and cover tortillas as cooked.

Oriental Eggs Fried Rice

Ingredients:

1 bowl cooked rice
2 eggs
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 stalks spring onion, chopped
2 tbsp white rice vinegar
2 tbsp rice wine
2 ½ tsp salt or to taste
5 tbsp oil

Method:

Cook rice 1 day ahead and keep in refrigerator covered to prevent sogginess fried rice.

Heat 5 tbsp oil in a wok or non-stick deep pan over medium heat, scramble eggs till golden yellow.

Add-in carrot and stir-fry for short while or till almost cook-through.

Add-in cooked rice and stir fry for about 1 minute to spread out rice grains.

Pour-in vinegar, wine and seasoning with salt, stir-fry to incorporate.

Sprinkle-on spring onion and continue stir-fry for another short while or till aroma.

Dish-up and best serve hot immediately.

Sticky Soy Sauces Chicken Wings

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken wings.

Marinade:

6 tbsp light soy sauce
6 tbsp oyster sauce
3 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp fresh ginger juice (from 2 inch knob)
3 tbsp rice wine
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp white pepper powder

Method:

In a bowl, mix together all the marinade ingredients.

Marinate wings for at least 1 hours or overnight covered in refrigerator.

Heat a large non-stick deep pan over medium high heat, pan-fry chicken wings with marinade till golden brown, sticky and cook-thoroughly (about 30 minutes).

Alternatively, grill the wings till golden brown and cook-through (occasionally, bath wings with marinade).

Remove wings from fat gravy in pan and best serve hot/warm as an appetizer or with rice.

Pineapple Filled Chocolate Tart

Ingredients:

Shortcrust Pastry:

1 egg yolk
1 tbsp cold water
110 g all purpose flour
55 g butter
2 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
1/8 tsp salt

Filling:

80 g dark chocolate
2 ½ tbsp (40 g) butter
2 eggs
3 ⅓ tbsp all purpose flour
2 tbsp brown sugar (4 tbsp if using plain chocolate)
1/2 cup cubed ripe fresh pineapple or canned pineapple

Method:

To prepare the pastry:

Mix yolk with cold water; set aside.

In another bowl, mix flour, butter, sugar, lemon zest and salt till fine breadcrumbs.

Add-in yolk mixture and continue mixing till chunky breadcrumbs.

With floured hand, form the mixture into dough (not to knead).

Wrap dough with plastic wrapper and chill for at least 30 minutes or till use.

To prepare the filling:

Over a double boiler, melt chocolate with butter.

Gradually, incorporate-in eggs.

Add-in flour and sugar, stir to homogeneous batter.

To assembly:

Preheat oven to 180 °C.

With rolling pin, roll out dough between two plastic sheets into the thickness of about 1/4 inches.

Carefully transfer the pastry into a 18 cm cake or tart pan and line up side to about 3 cm height.

Layer-on a large parchment paper and fill with raw rice as a weight.

Bake blind in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Remove paper and weight and bake again for another 10 minutes.

Line-in pineapples cubes and pour-in filling.

Bake for 20 minutes or till just set.

Remove from oven and set aside to cool completely (may dust surface with cocoa powder).

French Baguettes

Ingredients:

1/4 cup lukewarm water
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tbsp dry active yeast

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup lukewarm water

Method:

Dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water, leave for 8 minutes or till foamy.

In a bowl, combine flour and salt.

In another large bowl, combine yeast solution with 1/2 of the flour mixture and the remaining water, stir and mix to form a dough; set aside covered to rise for 3 hours or till triple in size.

Gradually, incorporate-in the remaining flour mixture and knead for 10 minutes or till smooth, supple and elastic.

Transfer dough into a greased bowl and set aside to rise covered for at least 1 hour or till double in size.

Knead lightly and divide dough into 2 portions.

Preheat oven to 230 °C.

Shape each portion into a long baguette, place on a baking sheet and set aside at dry corner covered loosely for at least 30 minutes or till double in size.

As soon as the baguettes have been slashed, moisten the surface either by painting with a soft brush dipped in cold water or with spray.

Place a bowl of boiling water into the oven (for obtaining light baguettes with crusty brown skin and soft internal).

Alternatively, rapidly brush baguettes surface with cold water or spray after every 3 minutes of baking for 3 times.

Bake baguettes for about 25 minutes or till golden brown and give a hollow sound once is thumped (Remove the water after 15 minutes of baking).

For shining crust, brush baguettes surface lightly with cold water as soon as it fresh out from the oven.