Fried Sweet Yam with Vegetables

Hi there,

Any Putien Fans here? (*waving my hands eagerly*)

I have a big yam (taro) sitting my fridge. Not sure what I can do with it. I got my hubby to buy it from the market last week because I saw a TV show featuring a delicious looking yam dish. I wanted to try making the dish however it requires fresh scallops and I could not get hold of them. Hence I decided to shelf the attempt.

This evening, as my hubby was grumbling about his growling stomach, I decided to make his favourite putien dish, Fried Sweetened Yam with Vegetables. As spontaneous as I can get, I chopped the yam into slices and sent them to steam. No recipe to refer to but memory of how the dish have tasted.... heheh!

When the dish was served, I haven't got the slightest idea if it tasted fine. I told my hubby that I will only take picture of it if it tasted good. So here you see.

When u bite into the yam pieces, it is crunchy on the outside and soft in the inside. It is sweet and yet salty. The vegetables also provide a strong fragrant that brings out the taste of yam. YAMMY!

Recipe

500g Local Yam

1 Big Onion, quartered

1 Garlic, sliced

1/2 Green Capsicum, diced

1/2 Red Capsicum, diced

Seasoning

1/4 tsp Salt

1 tbsp Light Soya sauce

A dash White Pepper

Sugar coating

4 tbsp caster sugar

Ingredients for Yam Dough

500g Local Yam (Steamed and mashed)

2 tbsp Corn flour

1/2 tsp Five spice powder

1 tbsp Shortening

1/4 tsp Salt

Additional corn flour to coat dough

Steps:

1. Mix mashed yam and its ingredients.
2. Shape the yam into small pieces using a teaspoon.
3. Heat up a shallow pan, add 1 inch of cooking oil.
4. Coat yam dough pieces with corn flour.
5. Shallow fry the yam dough pieces at medium heat.
6. Remove when all sides turned golden brown.
7. In a frying pan with high heat, put in the fried yam dough pieces and sprinkle caster sugar. Flip the pan frequently to prevent burning of sugar.
8. At the same time, in another frying pan, add in 1 tbsp of oil. Fry onions, garlic till fragrant and add capsicum. Add in seasoning.
9. Add in sweetened yam dough pieces. Flip the pan.
10. Serve hot.

Soufflé the epitome and triumph of the art of French cookery?

Soufflé means to 'puff up' in french.

Julia Child said that people consider the dessert Soufflé to be the epitome and triumph of the art of French Cookery.

Do you agree?

You get to make souffle no matter what u do but it is only that you can achieve magnificent only if the egg whites are beaten that they mount smoothly and stiffly to about seven times their original volume, and then folded carefully into the sauce base so that their maximum volume is retained. Isn't this interesting?

My recipe uses the cooked roux method however not the best because it does not puff up the most.

I will try bouilli method the next time.

Recipe for 3 (180ml) ramekins

• 75g caster sugar
• 50g butter
• 1 tablespoon plain flour
• 200g dark chocolate, melted
• 2 egg yolks
• 4 egg whites

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius
2. Grease the ramekin with butter and sprinkle sugar in it. Shake off excess. Place cups on baking tray.
3. Melt butter in saucepan, add flour and cook. Stir and remove after 2 minutes.
4. Add in melted chocolate and egg yolks. Stir and transfer to a big bowl.
5. Whisk egg whites till soft peaks. Add in sugar slowly. Whisk it till sugar dissolves.
6. Fold in egg white into mixture.
7. Divide the mixture into the ramekins.
8. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Khong Bah Pau

Dear all,

Well, I bought belly pork last weekend and threw them into my freezer as I have not exactly decided what to do with them. I thought I would be making some fried wantons but today I decided to make some Khong Bah to make "chinese burgers". Yes, it is sinful....but who cares.. :P

I was quite apprehensive to make them at first because I did not succeed in making them a couple years ago (cos I followed a recipe book which I mentioned in my previous post).

This time round I am trying out Auntie Hannah's recipe. So I shall try.

It was heavenly..... One of the best Khong Pah Pau I have ever tasted. One big advice, eat it with garlic slices. It brings out the flavour and adds freshness and bang to it!

I will definitely make again. Especially for pot luck party. It will be a HIT!

Recipe

• 800g of pork belly, cut into 3" by 0.5"
• 2 stalks of Spring Onion
• 5 slices of ginger
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1 star anise
• 10g of cinnanon bark
• 2 cloves
• 60g of sugar
• 3 tbsp of dark soya sauce
• 3 tbsp of light soya sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp of Hua Tiao Jiu
• 500ml water

*Served with Garlic slices, Coriander and Chinese Lettuce

Steps

1. Clean the pork belly and rub with some salt.
2. Rinse and drain the pork belly.
3. Heat up a pan, add some oil. Sear the pork belly.
4. Remove when fragrant.
5. In a pot, boil water, spices and other ingredients except Hua Tiao Jiu.
6. Add in pork belly. Cover the pot, boil at low heat for about an hour.
7. Open the lid and let the gravy reduce. It will take about 20 minutes or so.
8. When the meat is tender and ready to eat, add in Hwa Tiao Jiu. Stir and switch off fire after a minute.
9. Best serve hot with buns, garlic, lettuce and coriander.

You really need to try this! No regrets!